


Famous Five in the jungle of Thailand

by DomKe



Category: Famous Five - Enid Blyton
Genre: Age Difference, Angst, Blood and Violence, Cousin Incest, Crime Fighting, Crimes & Criminals, Developing Friendships, Developing Relationship, Drug Abuse, Drug Addiction, Drug Dealing, Drug Use, Explicit Language, F/M, Feels, Female Friendship, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Gang Violence, Gangs, Gangsters, Gender Confusion, Gender Dysphoria, Gender Issues, Gun Violence, Horror, Humor, Inappropriate Humor, Jungle, Male Friendship, Male-Female Friendship, Mild Sexual Content, Murder, Murderers, Mystery, Organized Crime, Other, Psychological Horror, Psychological Torture, Romance, Some Humor, Supernatural Elements, Survival Horror, Teen Romance, Teenagers, Thailand, Threats of Violence, Torture, Trans, Trans Character, Trans Male Characer (in theory), Treasure Hunting, Underage Drug Use, Underage Smoking, Violence, anomalies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-15
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:07:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 6
Words: 23,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21798097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DomKe/pseuds/DomKe
Summary: Thailand! A country full of jungle, villages with small houses, wild animals, poisonous insects, and even more jungle.  This is where the famous Five Friends wanted to spend their holidays. Just lie on the beach and do nothing. But nothing came of it. Shortly after their arrival, they met Joe, a Thai fisher girl whose village is to be torn down by a greedy hotel owner named Haynes to raise a holiday park. To prevent this from happening, the five friends followed Joe into the Thai jungle to find an old pirate treasure with the help of a compass they discovered while diving, which they could use to pay off the village's debts and thus prevent the demolition. In the process, they find themselves in a number of dangerous situations, and they must test all their courage and cohesion to survive this daring adventure.
Relationships: Anne Kirrin/OriginalMaleCharacter, Dick Kirrin/Joe, George Kirrin/Julian Kirrin
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> It’s time for something new lads. This time a fanfiction to the Five Friends of Enid Blyton. The events in this story will be really tricky for the five, and they will have to prove their courage and their friendship. This time they can only get through it when their cohesion is so strong that nothing and nobody can stop them anymore.
> 
> This fan fiction is partly taken from the German film "Fünf Freunde 3". However, since this is a fanfiction, as already mentioned, there can be big differences. I haven't watched the movie myself, but I know the basic storyline. I just create something nice out of the puzzle pieces myself. ^^
> 
> Genres: Action, Romance, Friendship, Horror / Psycho-Horror, Mystery, Supernatural and also a bit of humor
> 
> Pairings: Dick x Joe, Julian x George, Anne x OMC
> 
> The age of the protagonists is as follows: Julian: 16, George: 15, Dick: 15, Anne: 14
> 
> Age Restriction Information: This story includes use of strong language, mention, and depiction of physical violence, use of firearms, drug dealing and consumption. There may be erotic content or mention or depiction of sexual violence in this work, but this will be announced in advance with a "trigger warning".
> 
> Otherwise, I wish you a lot of fun while reading!
> 
> DomKe

Exhausted and plagued by the enormously sultry air, the Famous Five and Joe stomped through the Thai jungle. Their search for the treasure that could save Joe's village turned out to be extremely complicated, despite the help of the compass. Not only the chaotic vegetation, but also the danger of being attacked by dangerous wild animals or caught by Cassi and Nick made their search drastically more difficult.

They passed a clearing that was a little less wild. "This looks like a good place for a camp. I really need a break," said Dick, and ran straight for the clearing. As he got closer, they heard a rustling in a bush not far from them. "What was that?" Anne asked startled. They all stopped as if rooted to the ground and looked tense in all directions. "Maybe just an animal," Julian replied and walked cautiously towards the clearing. "Be careful, Julian," George warned him. There was a definite note of concern in her voice. Dick, too, approached the clearing, but kept a watchful eye on all around him. "There's nothing here," said Joe. "It was probably really just an animal. No danger so far." Dick assumed. "If we weren't in a jungle, I'd believe you right now. But there are simply too many beasts here that like to hide and then attack you from behind" Anne replied, still full of fear. "Maybe it's Cassi and Nick," she added. "I don't care now, I need a break," George groaned and jumped over a fallen tree.

The friends had now reached the clearing. After further inspections and tense observation of their surroundings, they finally allowed themselves to rest. There seemed to be no danger. Totally exhausted from the long walk and fighting dehydration, the Famous Five and Joe sat down and rested for a while. "I never thought it would be so exhausting finding the treasure," Dick gasped. "Even though we have the compass that will lead us straight to the treasure." Julian added. "If this stupid treasure is even real." whispered George, who is not really convinced of the reality of the alleged pirate treasure. "It's real! And it is the last hope for me and my family. If that greedy Haynes gets that treasure, he'll leave us alone." Joe replied. She was used to the heavy air of the jungle, so she showed no signs of being exhausted. "Anyway, I need a few hours rest before I go looking for anything else. I can hardly even sit up straight anymore." Anne complained. Julian looked at his wristwatch which showed "08:43 p.m." " Well, let's call it a day now, tomorrow we'll leave again," he said and took a bottle of water from his backpack.

He sat down on a rock and took a big sip from the bottle. He ran his hand through his hair and thought about their latest adventure. After only a short time, it turned out to be one of the most dangerous they had ever experienced. Cassi and Nick, a gangster couple who were also after the treasure and knew that they had the compass, tried with all means to take it from them. Cassi proved to be quite unyielding and was not afraid to use force of arms against the children. They had seen weapons many times before, but they had never met anyone so willing to use them against the five. Nick, Cassi's jerky friend, had a different attitude. Either he didn't want to do the whole thing at all and just let Cassi take him along, or he didn't have enough guts to take violent action against children, like Cassi did. He was also a pretty big fool and had often made sure that the children got away safe and sound.

" Julian. Are you okay?", a voice ripped him from his thoughts. It was George who came to him with Timmy. "Sure. I was just thinking, you know. I think this adventure is the most dangerous thing we've ever been in," he replied, staring at the ground. "That's right." George narrowly confirmed. "But we'll manage," she added. "I thought the treasure was just a myth to you," Julian teased grinning. George shrugged and smiled at him, too. "Anything for the adrenaline rush," she said and laughed. Her laughter caused a kind of stare in Julian because he couldn't take his eyes off her. Euphoria spread through him. She made it seem as if she was happy and this made him happy as well. 

George noticed that Julian was staring at her and looked into his eyes. She couldn't take her eyes off him either. For a long time they both looked into each other's eyes. George broke eye contact for a fraction of a second and started chewing on her lip. She couldn't stop her eyes to focus on his lips, which were decorated with a slight grin. Her heart started pounding wildly in her chest, and she could barely suppress the impulse to reach for his hand. What she could not prevent, however, was to give him a warm smile, which he immediately returned. She didn't even notice that she had come a little closer to him, but there was nothing she could do about it. Her mind was as if switched off, she felt her as if in a kind of trance and the boy in front of them would attract her like a magnet. "What the hell is wrong with me?" she asked herself silently. She seemed to have lost all self-control.

Timmy's barking made her come back to reality. The sly dog looked at her with his head held at an angle and barked again. "All is well Timmy," she sighed still grinning and knelt down to stroke his slightly dirty fur. Julian still sat on the stone and was now even more restless than before. What was it just between him and George? His heart was still racing and beating wildly in his chest. His hands trembled slightly and he had to try hard not to drop the water bottle in his hand. Or was it already too late for that?

A quick glance at the ground below him enlightened him. He had actually dropped the bottle. George also noticed this and gave him her full attention again. Timmy gave him a worried look, he knew something was wrong. "Are you sure you're all right?" George asked. "Yeah, sure. I'm just totally knocked out from the legwork today," he replied curtly and slid off the stone. Stupid idea, because when he stood on his feet again, he immediately became very uncomfortable. Nausea and dizziness plagued him and the headaches didn't leave him in peace either. George came closer to him and touched his arm slightly, whereupon she immediately pulled her hand back in shock. "You're almost burning," she whispered. "It's all right George. Nothing to worry about," Julian assured her. "I am worried Julian," she said seriously. "You look at me with a blank stare as if you were totally out of it, and you're almost burning."

Her face distorted before his eyes. He saw everything around him only blurred and had difficulty keeping his balance. Julian felt as if the earth's gravity was five times stronger on him. He knew that something was definitely wrong with him, but he had to stay strong. As the Elder of the Five, it is his duty to look after his brothers and sisters and his cousin and her dog. He forbade himself to become weak.

"You should rest, Julian," George said in a slightly commanding but worried tone. "But I must..." he began to protest, but she would not allow him to resist. She gently took his hand and pulled him to her sleeping bags. "What you need to do now is rest before you collapse," she said as they slowly approached the others, already dozing. "I hope you feel better tomorrow, otherwise I will start to worry even more." she whispered so as not to wake the others. "Tomorrow I'll be in top form again." he assured her. He doubted it himself, but he didn't want George to worry about him. That was his job, after all.

After he had slowly and agonizingly maneuvered himself into his sleeping bag, he felt as if he had been stapled to the ground, almost impossible to move even a little. Despite the hammering headache and the feeling of having just been put into the oven by the devil, Julian had fallen into a restless half-sleep within seconds. George on the other hand was still wide awake. Julian's peculiar behavior and the spontaneous staring contest that had caused her heart to race kept her awake. Never before had she been so worried about someone in her entire life. She was not surprised because before she had met Julian, Dick and Anne, she was always alone. Only Timmy was by her side, but that was quite enough for her. She loved Timmy more than anything and could not imagine a life without him from the very first day she met him. This affection also went over to the other three. After they had their first adventures together, they became inseparable. She could hardly imagine spending a holiday without Dick, Julian and Anne. The more adventures they had had together, the closer the others grew to her heart.  
It was different with Julian. Of course, he is also incredibly important to her, so very important that she didn't want to admit it at all in order not to push the others into the background. He saw himself, as an elder, as the protector of the others and did everything to prevent them from getting into danger. Of course, this almost never worked because the famous Five Friends attracted danger almost magnetically, but Julian managed to pull them out of danger most of the time. Often the others helped out, especially Dick who was quite bragging and know-it-all but with his knowledge and ability to find a solution in a flash, was an incredible support.

Her thoughts drifted back to the strange event between her and Julian. For quite a while they stared into each other's eyes, and she seemed to forget everything, really everything around her. Absent-minded as she was, she hadn't even noticed that she had come closer to him. She wondered what would have happened if Timmy's barking hadn't pulled her out of the trance. She couldn't explain what was going on with her at the time. Slowly her eyelids grew heavy, and she decided to go to sleep as well. She also fell into a restless sleep.


	2. Visit from way down under

Loud rustle of the undergrowth lying around, tore George uneasily from her sleep. It was still the middle of the night. The sky was pitch black over the crowns of the trees. Jo and Dick were awake, too, and looked around in all directions, put on alert. The sound of twisting branches and bushes turned into footsteps that locked the already awakened youngsters in a state of shock. Someone definitely came to the clearing where they were camping in!

"Anne... Anne, wake up. We've got company," Dick whispered and shook his little sister's shoulder restlessly. Anne whimpered a little and accidentally knocked Dick's hand away. Slowly she opened her eyes and looked at her brother and Jo in confusion. "What's wrong?" she asked yawning and rubbed her itchy eyes with her hands. "There's someone creeping around in the bushes," Jo replied quietly and gave the youngest a serious look. "What!?", it burst out of Anne, who immediately pressed her hand in front of her own mouth. Her shocked reaction came out of her mouth much too loudly than expected.

To the young people's great concern, the sounds, after Anne's somewhat too loud exclamation of horror, stopped abruptly. Grinding her teeth, George gave the others a worried look. They did not know what was behind the protective wall of bushes and small trees. It could be a wild, dangerous animal looking for food or Nick and Cassi. Either would put them in great danger. In their still half dazed state they were quite defenceless.

George slowly started to get up and carefully approached the undergrowth from which the eerie noises were coming. But a voice, the sound of which triggered an unknown, strange feeling in her, stopped her. "Don't go there George. It's too dangerous," stopped her Julian, who had just freed himself from his sleeping bag. Reluctantly, George stopped and wondered why she just obeyed Julian's orders. She never did that before. No, on the contrary, she always did what she thought was right. Yet she stopped as if rooted to the spot and fixed her gaze on the vegetation in front of her.

Suddenly the rustling started again. Right in front of her face, the frightening sounds of branches and sticks crushing under footwear resounded again. George was getting really worried. Not knowing who or what was making these noises was obviously troubling her and the others.

"Damn it," cursed an unfamiliar voice from the undergrowth, which immediately calmed George a bit. It was definitely not a wild predator that was creeping towards them. Nor could it be Cassi and Nick, for the voice she had just heard did not belong to either of them. Without thinking much and also a little driven by fear, George did something quite daring. "Who is there?" she asked, demanding and trying to sound as threatening as she could. She could literally feel the horrified looks of the others on her back. What on earth is she doing, the others must have thought. But George stood firm and kept staring strained towards the sounds.

"What the?" she heard the voice stammer after George revealed her presence. "Hello?", the voice called back as footsteps sounded again. This time they were really heading towards the clearing where the friends were staying. George instinctively took a few steps back. She stood not far away from the others who were still lying or sitting on their sleeping bags like paralysed. Suddenly the giant leaves of a plant that offered them some cover were pushed aside and a boy looked at the Five Friends and Jo in surprise. This one was definitely not Thai. He was wearing a light blue tidy shirt, over it a black body armour and camouflage coloured cargo knickers. On his head he wore a cap, which looked very new and showed a sewed on Australian flag. He also healed a carbine in his hand, which made all the alarm bells ring in the heads of the group. This boy could be dangerous!

"Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you," the stranger blurted out and immediately pointed his gun to the floor. "Put that thing away!" George told him. To their surprise, the unknown boy, who was not much older than she was. "Okay, don't panic. If we all stay calm, nobody will get hurt," he said and slowly and carefully put his gun on the ground. However, he always kept his eyes fixed on the others. He knew what he was doing and gave the impression that he was trained in such situations. Keeping an eye on the enemy was the most important thing to surprise him out of the blue and take him out.

After he had put the gun down, he stood up again and kicked the rifle with his foot a few meters away from him. Timmy reacted immediately and hurried to his paws. Growling menacingly, he walked past the boy in a large arch and towards the gun. A long strap was attached to the gun, which could be thrown around his shoulder so that the gun did not have to be held in hand continuously. With the help of this band, which Timmy snapped at with his mouth, he dragged the weapon away from the stranger and put it down at George's feet. George grabbed the gun and put the strap around his shoulder. She looked quite threatening with the gun around her neck. Julian shook his head with a grin. His cousin visibly had the guy under full control. But he also knew that the boy didn't fight back and didn't really come across as hostile. However, he could have been faking it and had a nasty plan in mind to put George and the rest of the gang out of action. Who knows maybe he would rob them. Maybe he was also after the legendary treasure of an old notorious pirate captain of the Taruto Pirates.

"Who are you?" asked Julian, who stood up and joined George. "My name is Lewis. Lewis Stewart," the boy replied calmly. He was definitely trying to calm the others to make the situation less volatile. "And what are you doing here?" George asked, demanding, with a very poisonous undertone in her voice. "I'm looking for my brother," Lewis replied succinctly. George gave Julian a brief questioning glance. Could they trust this guy, or should they drive him away immediately? Julian unknowingly shrugged his shoulders as if he knew what questions were going through George's mind at that moment.

"Your accent... you must be from the Commonwealth, right?" asked Anne, who looked up at Lewis, covered by Dick and Timmy, who stood protectively in front of her. He smiled a little and then nodded. "Yes, that's right. I am from Australia. You must come from the kingdom, am I right?" he replied with a grin. "Yes, we do," Julian replied quietly and looked at the young Australian with a stern expression. He seemed to be a very relaxed guy who is not easily intimidated. Maybe they could trust him if they knew more about him. "Why are you looking for your brother here in Thailand? It's quite a long way from home, isn't it?" he asked cautiously. "I can explain everything to you if you promise to lower your alert," Lewis said. Julian and George then gave themselves further perplexed looks. Finally, Julian nodded and signalled to George that she didn't need to hold him at gunpoint any longer. Reluctantly, she did so and swung the gun behind her back with a heavy sigh. "But if he pulls even a small stupid move that puts us in danger, I'll hold you responsible," she muttered and stomped frustratedly to a tree where she finally settled down.

Meanwhile, Lewis turned himself in the middle of the round and started to tell the Five Friends and Jo what he was doing here, in Thailand, several hundred kilometres from home. "As I told you, I'm looking for my brother. He disappeared without a trace a while ago, but I found out with a lot of effort that he must be here in Thailand. You know... Our father was a billionaire and unfortunately he died tragically recently. His inheritance was split between me and my brother, Tyson. That means there was a billion Australian dollars for each of us. I never touched the money, but Tyson, lost himself in a fierce pursuit of the lives of the rich. He bought cars, went to expensive clubs, which were also haunted by some shady people. As far as I know he had messed with one of these people and then suddenly disappeared into nothingness. But as I already said, after a long and tedious work I was able to find out where he should be. That's why I'm here, and I'm not leaving this country until I find Tyson again."

Julian respected Lewis' intentions. He wanted to save his brother. He and Lewis shared his concern and closeness to his siblings. "Now I want to know what you're doing here. The kingdom is a long way away from here, too. Further, from Australia to be honest," said Lewis and grinned a little. "We are on holiday here," George said immediately. She probably didn't want to reveal her true intentions to him, which was quite understandable. "Holiday? Here? Why in this jungle of all places?", Lewis asked, a little surprised. He seemed shocked by George's testimony. "Why not? Can't we have a holiday here?" replied Dick, who inadvertently came over a little unkindly. "Well, it's not forbidden, but this jungle is no place for teenagers looking for a relaxing holiday," replied Lewis, shaking his head slightly. "We love adventure, and so we go to places that others tend to stay away from," George threw into the round and crossed her arms in front of her chest. "But then you got yourselves into an adventure that is life-threatening," Lewis returned. Although he had a cheeky grin on his lips throughout, he sounded damn serious. What exactly was he talking about?

"We've had adventures like this many times. We have escaped from many life-threatening situations," said George, who wanted to completely convince Lewis that the Famous Five and, of course, Jo were not just helpless children. "I don't think you even know what's going on here in this paradise," smiled Lewis, who seemed really calm. Julian confused this, because if it was really so dangerous here, wouldn't he have been afraid for his own well-being?

Lewis' eyes fell on Jo, "You look native to me, without wanting to offend you now. Do you really have no idea what is happening here?" he asked her and raised his hands a little. Jo laughed a little, she thought it was kind of funny and also a little cute that he was worried about offending her. Her expression soon became serious again. "No, I really don't know what you're talking about," she said and shook her head. Lewis sighed softly and looked up at the sky for a moment. Then he gave the young people a very serious look. "You have gone on holiday, to one of the most criminal and dangerous places in the world at the moment," he said. "How exactly do you mean that?", Julian questioned. He knew how dangerous this adventure was, but the level of danger they had got themselves into was much higher than he had ever feared.

"I'm not surprised that you don't know anything about it. Because most of the time no one survives to witness what happens here in this jungle and to tell about it. We are talking about large-scale drug trafficking, kidnappings, women who are abused and men who simply disappear without a trace and are never found again, at least alive. This place is literally hell on earth," Lewis explained deadly seriously. Anne was immediately frightened and listened to Lewis spellbound and with big eyes. She did not like what she heard at all. "'But if this area was so dangerous, why are you so relaxed?' asked George, who doubted Lewis' story. Dick was also a little suspicious, but he didn't speak up. Lewis looked at George with a confident grin. "I know how to defend myself. I have my eyes and ears everywhere," he said. "I still don't believe you," snorted George and avoided eye contact with Lewis. "You should, all of you. It's for your own good," he replied. Realizing that he could not influence George, he looked down and sighed.

"Granted, you are relatively safe here in this part of the forest," he said after a while of silence. "But if you should ever come across makeshift signs saying "H̄̂ām p̄h̀ān!" or "Xạntrāy thī̀ r̂āyræng k̄ĥāng h̄n̂ā!" on your discovery tours, turn around immediately and hope that you are not picked up by the gangs that are up to no good," he added, almost pleading. Jo was immediately impressed by Lewis' good pronunciation of the Thai words. "Where did you learn Thai?" she asked amusedly. "These are almost the only words or phrases I know," Lewis returned, also somewhat amused. "But your pronunciation is excellent for that," she praised him. "Thank you," Lewis said, nodding at her with a grin.

"And what do these signs have to do with it?" Dick questioned. "They demarcate the safe part of the jungle from the part where total anarchy and lawlessness reigns," Lewis replied simply, shrugging his shoulders. "This said part is called Khwām Tāy Forest, or Death Forest. Some treasure is said to be buried there by a captain of the Taruto pirates everyone is unrestrainedly crazy after," Lewis added. This statement shocked each of the Five Friends and Jo. If what Lewis told them was true, they were forced to go to that part of the jungle. However, they will not tell this rather strange boy. Anne was terrified by the thought of wandering around the Khwām Tāy forest and being in constant danger of being shot, injured, kidnapped or otherwise brutally murdered.

Lewis realized that he could not convince his friends to leave the dense jungle. But he was surprised that the kids, who didn't have to be much younger than himself, insisted so strongly on staying there. He got the feeling that they had something completely different in mind than just spending a simple holiday here. But he dropped the subject. George, out of boredom, constructed a campfire in the middle of the circle in which they sat. Everyone seemed to be occupied in some way. Dick and Jo were talking and joking around. Lewis immediately noticed that sometimes they got really, really close. They certainly seemed to like each other a lot.

Anne searched the backpacks and checked what else they had with them. And she looked pretty worried. A thick lump formed in Lewis' throat, because he blamed himself for scaring the young girl to death. This was true, but they still had to be made aware of the dangers of this jungle.

Julian looked very thoughtful and deeply lost in thought. He, too, seemed to have been very shocked by Lewis' words. But the Australian couldn't make any rhyme out of them. As long as they stayed in the more or less safe zone, they had nothing to fear? And staying away from Khwām Tāy Forest is a piece of cake. No, these teenagers were up to something and it definitely had to have something to do with the Death Forest.

Lewis' eyes fell on George and Timmy. The latter was lying dozing next to his mistress, who had sat down on a tree and leaned against it. In their hands was the rifle with which Lewis had been armed a short time before he had given it up. George seemed very interested in the gun. "You ever fired one of these?" Lewis asked with a grin as he approached her calmly. Without looking at him, George shook her head. "I can show you how to do it and what you need to know not to break your fingers," Lewis offered her. She seemed to like this suggestion because her head immediately shot up to Lewis, and she looked at him with a mischievous look. "Are you sure you want to do this? Afterwards I might become a danger to you," she teased him. Lewis laughed. "Dream on. You need a lot of practice to handle a gun like that sensibly," he returned. George didn't like that one bit. She stood up and looked at him with a sharp look. "Then show me how to use it and I'll show you what I got," she said softly, with a subtle, poisonous undertone in her voice. She mastered that one bloody well, Lewis had to admit. Some people could be kept in check by that, but not him. He just grinned a bit cheekily, nodded and hinted at George to follow him.

Purely by chance, Lewis led George to exactly the spot where she and Julian had their strange, confusing, but still incredibly exciting moment the night before. Immediately, the thoughts of what had happened burst back into her mind. But she swallowed the thoughts away, because she had to concentrate on something completely different now. She wanted to show this disrespectful Australian who is in charge here!

As simple as it could be, Lewis explained to her how to handle the gun. He also explained to her exactly what kind of weapon it was - an F88 Austeyr. Actually, this weapon came from Austria and was called Steyr AUG, but this rifle was carried under the alternative name as an ordnance weapon of the Australian armed forces and was therefore a great favourite of Lewis.

He showed George how to hold the rifle properly and explained to her what she had to do. He also warned her that when the shot was fired, she would feel a strong blow to the shoulder. George, as she was, waved Lewis' warning away.

With a sigh, the Australian handed her the gun, which George accepted excitedly. To Lewis' surprise, she had the drill out damn quickly and placed it against her shoulder as if she already had experience with firearms. Of course this was not the case, but George learned pretty fast and tried hard to impress Lewis. Small improvements in her posture were corrected by Lewis, while touching her. Julian, who watched this from a distance, did not feel very well about that. Seeing George with the gun in his hands made him a little worried. He wanted to make sure she didn't get hurt just because she wanted to be the bravest and strongest again. It also went against his grain that Lewis was getting pretty close to her. An old problem came up again. A problem that Julian had been struggling with for several years, but never knew how to deal with it properly. He knew perfectly well it was jealousy. For what reason he suffered from it, however, he could never reveal. Because it would cause a tremendous frenzy on George's part.

"I gotta tell you, you're really good at handling it." joked Lewis and lightly punched George in the shoulder. Lewis seemed to realize at once that George was an... extraordinary girl. He realized that she wanted to be treated more like a boy and so Lewis behaved towards her as he would have towards an old mate. This made him much more likeable to George, who made her distrust of him drop a little. "I must be honest, this gun is probably one of the most valuable you will see here. All the gangsters and rebels here use Kalashnikovs exclusively. So always treat that thing with respect," he said laughing. George also let out a small laugh but then concentrated fully on the rifle in their hands.

A small telescopic sight was installed on the gun, through which she was looking through with one eye. With the small red dot in the middle of the rifle scope she aimed at a thick trunk of a big tree at some distance. "When you're ready, you can remove the safety catch and try to get control of your breathing," said Lewis, pulling something out of a fanny pack of his body armor. He pulled out a black thing that immediately caught George's eye. "What is that?" she asked. "A silencer," Lewis replied with a grin."We don't want to attract the whole forest to us, do we?" he added with a grin, still a little serious. "It's no fun with that. Come on, let me shoot without that thing," George expressed himself somewhat indignantly. She could already guess what this accessory would change on the gun. It makes it quiet and that was a gigantic buzzkill for George. Sighing, Lewis gave in. "But really only one shot. We're not far from Khwām Tāy, so wild shooting around might attract some nosy guys," he said and stowed the silencer back in his vest.

George was fully concentrated again. After taking a few deep breaths to keep her hands steady, she, after Lewis explained how to do it, unlocked the gun and prepared to fire her very first shot with a fully automatic carbine. The others had their eyes fixed on George. Anne was quite worried at this moment. Playing around with sharp weapons was certainly not a good idea. She was glad that Lewis seemed to know them so well and was paying attention to what George was doing every second. Meanwhile she was counting down from 10 to 0 in her mind. As soon as she reached 4, she took a deep breath and held it. A tip that Lewis had given her to keep the gun as still as possible. Then... she fired her first shot.

Anne visibly flinched when the loud bang of the gun sounded. With a big echo it echoed between the trees and bushes of the clearing through the dense vegetation of the jungle. Grinding his teeth, Julian looked around while he waited for the sound to die down. He hoped that no one hostile, like Cassi and Nick or those gangsters and rebels Lewis spoke of had heard it. At the word rebels, Julian suddenly became suspicious. Rebels? What rebels? Rebels would fight against the state, fighting over "political" things. He wanted to question Lewis about it. He wanted to get to Lewis as soon as possible.

"Well, it hurts a little bit, doesn't it?" Lewis asked with a provocative grin as he took the gun out of George's hand, which she handed him in her right hand. Her left hand had magically moved to her right shoulder. Exactly where she had leaned the gun against. "No, it didn't," George mumbled, trying to kill the pain, which was, after all, very much there. But this didn't work and Lewis could clearly see her painful expression on her face. "Oh, come on, it'll be all right. I had to go through that too. After a while you won't even notice it anymore," joked Lewis and patted her on the back.

Julian now saw a good moment to approach Lewis about the alleged rebels. "Lewis. You mentioned rebels earlier. What exactly do you mean by that? What rebels are you talking about?" Julian asked. "Oh, yes, one more thing you probably don't know about," Lewis said softly. "Thailand has been suffering from internal problems for some time. In the villages in the jungle you hardly notice it. But in the big cities like Bangkok, Nonthaburi and Nakhon Ratchasima, there is total chaos at times. A rebel faction which is against the current government has built up over years and has now taken up arms. Also in Khwām Tāy there are some of these rebels. They trade with the gangs here to get drugs, weapons or important hostages. A very dangerous situation if you ask me," Lewis then added. Julian nodded silently and fell deeply into thought again. To find the treasure, the Five and Jo had to go to the Death Forest for good or ill, so it was a good idea to gather as much information as possible.

"In which direction is this dangerous part of the forest?", Jo suddenly asked. "Right there," Lewis said and pointed in a north-western direction. In exactly the direction the compass told her to go when she secretly looked at it. She kept the mystical object a secret from Lewis. It was better if as few people as possible knew about this thing. That Cassi and Nick were hunting it without regard for the children's health was enough. Silently, Jo gathered the others together to tell them the disturbing news. "If what he says is really true and Khwām Tāy really exists, we have to go in there. The needle of the compass points exactly in the direction Lewis just pointed," she informed her friends in a whisper. Lewis went on patrol for a moment and was therefore distracted. A good time to have a quick chat.

"What are you doing here all alone in the jungle? Did you find anything interesting that I want to get something out of, huh?" the kids suddenly heard a voice ask from a distance. Confused and also a little scared, the kids looked around. Where did that come from? "There's nothing here at all. I just wanted to hunt a little. A tradition I have from my father," they heard another but familiar voice say. It was Lewis! George could hear the rough direction of the voices and peered through a bush not far from them. She did indeed discover Lewis there facing two men. They were dressed exactly like Lewis and were also holding weapons in their hands. "What are you going to hunt for? Monkeys?" one of the men joked loudly and began to laugh. The unknown guy standing next to him also laughed. "Get out of here, you must have more useful things to do," Lewis demanded of them. He seemed to want to send the men away from here. Probably to prevent them from discovering their friends. But... who are these men anyway? Was Lewis himself a member of one of these gangs? It's highly unlikely. The clothes these people wore looked more like a security guard's uniform than clothes from a gang of criminals.

"Yes, indeed we do. Johnatan just told us to let you know he wanted to talk to you. We are gonna scram now," said the right-hand, slightly smaller stranger. His colleague nodded and followed the smaller one back into the depths of the jungle. But not without giving Lewis another brief suspicious look. "Who was that?" asked George, who immediately came bursting out of the undergrowth behind which she had overheard the conversation. "My 'colleagues'," Lewis said with the fingers pointing goosefeet. "What "colleagues"?" George digged deeper and gave him a demanding look. "You know... I had to join a group to get here, or I never would have been able to come here to save my brother. But it doesn't matter," Lewis replied quickly and glanced around. "I have to go now," he added and handed George something. She looked at what he was about to give her with eyes wide open, petrified. A pistol. Sharp, loaded and with a few magazines in reserve. "Take it. I know you're up to something, but it's none of my business," Lewis said. George took the pistol out of his hand and gave him a look of surprise. "I trust you well enough to know you're good with it," he said and took a few steps back. "Perhaps we'll meet again soon, which I rather hope not. Because the longer you stay here, the more you will challenge your luck to survive this jungle," Lewis said goodbye and left. As fast as he had appeared, as fast he had disappeared again.

George was still standing in the same place, completely fossilized and shocked by what had just happened. With the pistol he had also put a lot of responsibility into George's hands. Responsibility that this gun did not fall into the wrong hands or that no other stupid things were done with it. George closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She looked at the gun in her hand as if it was an object from another galaxy and tried to get a reasonable grip on it. Just like Lewis' assault rifle, she got the hang of the gun just as quickly. Deep inside, she hoped that firing this weapon would not hurt as much as firing an assault rifle. But this was a concern George would never have confided in anyone. She was brave and strong, pain was nothing to her.

A desperate, panicky cry of fear from Anne made George flinch violently. In the course of a millisecond she turned and stormed through the bushes to get back to her friends. But what awaited her there literally turned her stomach. In a corner of the clearing, the others stood tightly packed together against a tree and looked with huge, frightened eyes at something that made even George tremble. Timmy stood growling and barking in front of the others, getting ready to protect his friends from what was threatening them. Stupidly enough, it was a huge snake, a king cobra to be exact.


	3. Enemies Are Everywhere

Julian, Anne, Dick, Jo and Timmy were now really in a fix. According to Dick, the snake that was holding them at bay was not the most poisonous, but still the biggest poisonous snake in the world. George stood a few feet away from the others, watching the dilemma from a distance, stuck in a state of shock. She did not know what to do. How was she to keep the snake away from the others? "I do have one piece of good news in our humble situation," said Dick holding Jo close to him and standing protectively in front of her. "And that is?" the latter asked hoarsely. "The bite is 100 per cent fatal, and you die relatively quickly. If one of us is bitten, he won't have to suffer for long," Dick replied, which of course didn't reassure the others at all.

"Timmy! Stay away from that thing!" shouted George alarmed by Dick's comment about the scaly beast. But it still remained rooted to the same spot. " That's not good news for me at all," Julian uttered, standing in front of Anne. Timmy growled loudly and did not take his eyes off the dangerous predator that was snaking ever closer to them. George cursed herself inwardly for not stopping Lewis from running away. He certainly knew what to do in this case.

The thought of Lewis also immediately brought his "gift" back into her mind. The gun! The others didn't even know yet that she had received the gun from him. Desperately, she reached for the pistol she had tucked behind her waistband at her hip. She wished she had a proper holster, like Cassi. But she didn't have time to worry about that now. She still had to find a way to protect her friends from the snake.

The easiest way George could think of to do this was to shoot the snake with the new pistol. But the longer she filed this thought in her head, the more worried she became. She was afraid of accidentally hitting Timmy or one of her friends, which was actually very unlikely as she was standing directly to the side of them. She had a clear shot at the cobra. Yet, she did nothing. Confusion and indecision froze her in place and left her standing idly.

"Do something, George. Come up with something," Anne wailed, clinging to Julian in agony. Julian stood very far forward and looked with a deprecating gaze at their enemy from the animal kingdom.

This enemy from the animal kingdom seemed to be slowly losing patience and dared to attack clever Timmy. Luckily, George's dog quickly dodged the attack and barked so loudly at the animal that it retreated a little. Slowly it was getting really dicey. Often Timmy could not stop the snake from attacking the friends because the snake was not exactly unintelligent either. It dared another attack, but this only served to trick Timmy. Although Timmy managed to catch the snake and trap it in his mouth, the animal wrapped the rest of its scaly body around the dog and clung tightly to it.

Whimpering, Timmy yelped under the snake's strong grip. Instinctively, the dog let go of the hostile animal with its mouth. Hissing, the snake held its head as far away from Timmy as it could and looked down at the weakened dog, almost taunting him. "Timmy!" shouted Anne and George at the same time, watching the battle between dog and snake with concern.

Just as the animal was about to strike the final blow and finally defeat Timmy, a loud pistol shot rang out, causing each of the teenagers present to flinch violently. It took them a while to realise that someone had actually just shot the snake that was about to bite Timmy. Blood poured from the large bullet wound on its head. A large part of it was torn off by the force of the bullet. It was a sight that disgusted the youths. But... who had just saved the kids from this animal? Evil laughter and clapping immediately answered their question. No one had such an ugly and annoying laugh... like Cassi.

"I really bailed you out, didn't I?" she asked mockingly, pointing the pistol she held casually in her right hand at the children. "If Nick hadn't been such a fucking crybaby again, I would have loved to watch the cattle slaughter one by one of you," she added. "You're sick, aren't you?" spat George, giving her an extremely grim look. "Sick?" asked Cassi indignantly, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "Which one of you just saved your friends, huh?" she said, giving George a mockingly insulted look. "Disrespectful cheeky brat.", Cassi continued to murmur, which really went against George's grain. Julian barely managed to stop his cousin from lunging at Cassi. George completely ignored the fact that Cassi was armed with a pistol, pointed it right at them and was therefore a real threat. Only her cousin, who rushed to her side, brought her back to her senses. "Just stay where you are," Cassi ordered and loudly loaded her pistol, bringing George back to reality.

George and Julian were quite close to each other. This was also noticed by Cassi, who looked at the two young people with a quirky look, but said nothing further about it. However, Dick was the one who noticed this. He found this behaviour extremely strange. George hated it when someone got too close to her. Normally, she would have already pushed Julian away a little or would have taken some distance from him on her own. To Dick's confusion, however, she remained in exactly the same place, right by Julian's side. What exactly did that mean?

"They wouldn't just save our lives out of the blue. I'm sure you have a relatively good reason for it," Julian spoke, looking at Cassi grimly. "Of course I have. I would have thought I could possibly get that nice little compass for it without having to teach each one of you a lesson.", Cassi laughed. "No way," it shot out of Jo, who held the object tight as a rock in her hand. "Okay, have it your way.", Cassi threatened and took a few steps towards Julian and George, pistol at the ready. She held it right in front of the two kids' noses and commanded icily, "The compass or it will go pew-pew."

Dull, distant machine-gun shots interrupted the tense situation. Everyone looked around in confusion and stood frozen for a while. "Cassi, we should get out of here," Nick suddenly whined, which immediately got on his girlfriend's nerves. "Stop whining. Some idiots are fighting in the Khwām Tāy, so what? We're safe here. It's far away from us." she grumbled, rolling her eyes. Cassi's mention of the forest of death made Julian wonder. If she too knew about this supposed section of anarchy, it definitely had to be real. So, Lewis hadn't lied to her, he was now a good deal more certain of that. So, their search for the treasure would take them to the most dangerous place in the world after all.

Julian's trains of thought were interrupted by a sudden, unexpected headache. His breathing partially stopped, and he had great difficulty catching his breath. He was plagued by heavy sweating. Julian got the feeling that he could not hold himself up for much longer. What on earth was going on now? It was an incredibly bad moment for a fainting spell. However, Julian was gradually being driven to the ground by the attacks of his body. Sharp pains in his arm, which started as suddenly as the headache, forced him to let out a muffled cry of pain and to clench his right hand convulsively around his upper-left arm. He was sure that something had stung him. Nothing hurt like a deep prick in the skin. At least that's what he thought.

"Julian!" shouted Anne, Dick and George at the same time. The latter had just managed to stop the oldest of the group from hitting the floor face-first. Completely weak and sweaty, Julian fell into George's arms, who was as confused as everyone else. Cassi, however, showed no concern. She was much more amused, almost gleeful, at Julian's unexpected, dramatically deteriorating condition.

Julian's collapse had briefly exposed his upper right arm. A kind of black circle formed on it, surrounding a reddened spot on his arm. The only one who saw this worrying mark was Cassi. She knew immediately what exactly had happened to Julian, but did not tell the others. The children's panic and helplessness were just far too amusing for her. "What's wrong, Julian?" asked Anne in an extremely shaky and frightened voice. "I don't know. I feel extremely dizzy all of a sudden.", Julian groaned weakly. "Maybe heatstroke.", Dick guessed and straightened up to get a water bottle from their backpacks. However, Cassi stopped him immediately.

"Whatever you're up to, you can save it. Your great leader won't have much time left anyway. The bite of a black forest killer makes its victims suffer, but not for too long," she spoke and laughed darkly. "What!?", Jo blurted out in shock, finally seeing the swollen injury on Julian's left arm. "Phracêā ch̀wy c̄hạn!" she groaned in dismay. The others were puzzled. "What did you say?" asked Dick with a furrowed brow. "Cassi's right, it's a bite from the black forest killer. Supposedly there's no cure for this bug's venom," Jo replied dejectedly, hanging her head. "Maybe not for you village idiots, but there are plenty of cures available from civilized areas," Cassi gave out. "Stop insulting us and tell us what we can use to save Julian," George murmured. "You'll never get the antidote, so there's no point in telling you about it at all," Cassi retorted, looking bored. "But Cassi, you can't just let the boy die," Nick suddenly interjected, who had remained hushed for most of the time. Probably his girlfriend's behaviour was starting to go a bit too far for him. "Well, they could give me something I'm very keen on. Maybe then I'll tell them where to get the antidote. It's up to you," Cassi said with a grin. The friends knew immediately what exactly Cassi meant. It was another attempt on her part to get the compass from the kids. But did they even have a choice this time?

"It's just a trick, don't fall for it," Julian gasped weakly. His voice was incredibly hotter and toneless. It scared the hell out of Anne, who clutched her brother's hand desperately. "Give her the fucking compass." she whispered softly, surprising the others with her choice of words. Cursing was something Anne never did. She really didn't seem to see any other way to save Julian.

Without finding an alternative, Jo suddenly stood up and angrily threw the compass at Cassi's feet. "At least I have a heart. I don't risk people's lives to save my village. Especially not those of the best friends I've ever had the privilege of knowing," she said, kneeling back down to Julian. Dick immediately tried to calm her down because shortly after she had done so, tears ran down her face. She seemed quite upset by the whole situation, which in Dick's eyes, was perfectly understandable. She had just possibly sealed the future of her village forever.

Satisfied, Cassi knelt down and picked up the compass. "You have two choices. You look for a rare, red, cherry-like berry and hope for a positive effect, or you get chaloditrophrine from the Khwām Tāy. However, that could be quite dangerous for you, so completely without weapons and experience in firefights and so on," she told the youths. "What's that?" asked Dick, confused. "The only medicine for the bite. More precisely its symptoms, which it weakens so much that the body can defeat the poison itself," Cassi replied, bored. "Man, I thought you guys were smarter than that," she let out in a whisper.

George was really fed up with Cassi's insults and taunts. If Julian wasn't in her arms right now, fighting for his life, she would have held her gun to her face. "We'd better go and get the berries. Lewis told us to stay out of the forest of death," Anne spoke, gently stroking her brother's cheek with her fingers. Cassi brightened at the mention of Lewis's name, however none of the friends noticed, all of them heavily focused on Julian. "Sorry to disappoint you there, sweetheart. The berries are so rare here that you will never find them. But there are a lot of them in the Khwām Tāy. The only problem is that they are also eagerly searched for, and you would have to go into the heart of it," Cassi immediately interjected, which made Anne burst into tears. "Why does everything have to be so dangerous here." she widened, sobbing heavily. "You should have just stayed in the safety of your resort. Then nothing would have ever happened to your Julian," Cassi chided. "Well, now if you'll excuse me, I have work to do. Treasure must be found.", Cassi finished her sentence and pulled Nick back into the forest with her. "Good luck, kids." she called brazenly before being completely swallowed up by the jungle with her boyfriend.

"That bloody stupid bitch is getting on my nerves," snorted George, looking grim behind her enemies. "You don't say?" sighed Jo, looking down sympathetically at the eldest of the Famous Five. Was she to blame for this dilemma? Maybe Cassi was right, after all. If Jo hadn't told the others about her problem, the Famous Five would have continued their holiday quite relaxed. Anne once told her that they were planning to go to Bangkok for a day and see the capital of Thailand. Lewis' words popped into her head. According to him, there were currently rebels in Bangkok terrorizing the population. So, were they going to be in danger either way? Was their entire Thailand holiday doomed to end in disaster?

In tears, Jo could no longer withstand her strong feelings of guilt. She had to get away from her new friends, for whose downfall she alone would be responsible. With a loud sob that she unintentionally let out, she straightened up and moved away from the group. Dick reacted immediately and jumped to his feet as well. He was incredibly worried about his brother, but he didn't want Jo to do anything stupid either.

"Hey, what's going on? Where are you going?" asked Dick, trying to sound as empathetic as possible. "I'm going to get those berries. It's all my fault Julian is dying now," Jo replied in a weakening, brittle voice. "That's not true at all. It's not your fault at all. We got ourselves into this adventure. If anyone is to blame, it's ourselves. You were just desperate for help and that's perfectly okay," Dick reassured her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I'll still go and get those berries. To make amends.", Jo objected, trying to turn away from Dick. "I'll come with you. I won't let you go to the Khwām Tāy alone," Dick immediately retorted, giving his all to stop Jo from running away. "No, you stay here with your brother. He needs you," Jo defended herself. She avoided any eye contact with Dick and stared at the ground in front of her feet. "He'll be fine if only George and Anne stay with him. Don't you understand that I'm trying to protect you? You just mean too much to me, so I can't let you go off into the deep jungle all alone," Dick said, touching her gently on the shoulders.

This made Jo look up again, a little flushed. Had Dick really just said that? Or had she just imagined it. "What?" she stammered uncertainly. "I like you. A lot, actually. I don't want to lose you by putting yourself in this danger alone. I will come with you.", Dick said confidently and in a serious voice. As he did so, he gently took her hands in his and looked piercingly into her eyes. Out of reflex, Jo had to smile. "I like you too," she whispered softly and gave Dick a brief but meaningful hug.

"Let's tell the others we're going to get the berries," she breathed as she broke away from Dick. He nodded at her and, without really noticing, took her hand. Jo did not mind. On the contrary, she even liked it.

"We'll get them," Dick said boldly and confidently when they were back with the others. "What?" stammered Anne, confused, and looked up at the two of them. Only after a while did she catch on to what Dick was talking about. "You want to go and get the berries and venture into the Khwām Tāy?" she asked, frightened. "Yes, it's the least I can do after putting you in this dilemma," Jo gave out. Again she could not look the others in the eyes. Her guilt was tormenting her a lot and she just had to do it to be able to quiet it again.

"I'll stay with Julian. Maybe you should go with them too Anne," George said resting Julian's head on her lap. "I'm definitely not going into that bloody jungle. Dick and Jo shouldn't risk it either," Anne immediately denied and looked at the others with wide eyes. "But then Julian will die. I'm afraid there's no other way to save him without going into the Khwām Tāy," Dick countered. His sister then slumped her shoulders in exhaustion. "We should never have gone here.", she stammered, burying her face in her hands. "I'm sorry.", Jo gave softly, which confused Anne a little. "No, it's not your fault. It's all our fault. Please don't beat yourself up about it," Anne blurted out when she finally understood Jo. Her new friend didn't answer and just looked at the floor, shaking her head.

"We should leave. The longer we delay, the worse Julian's condition will get," Dick said. "I guess you're right," Anne sighed, squeezing her dejected brother's hand. "I'll come with you." she said quietly, causing the others to look at her in surprise. "Are you for certain?" asked Jo cautiously. She didn't want her friends to put themselves in that kind of danger. She still saw herself as responsible for this problem. "Yes I am. Sitting around here won't do any good," Anne replied, trying to sound as confident as possible. Yes, she will risk her life for her brother! Lewis would do the same, she thought to herself. Why she was thinking of the young Australian at that very moment, she couldn't explain. But his determination to do everything for his brother also drove Anne to do everything for her own.

"Here, take this. In case things get really hairy," George said, holding out her new pistol to Anne. Her cousin looked startled at the gun in her hand. "Where did you get that?" she asked in shock. "Just before Lewis left, he put it in my hand. He seemed to have guessed that we were going to this forest of death and left it with me so that we could defend ourselves," George spoke. Slowly and cautiously Anne took the gun from her hand and looked at it for a while, just as George had done before, like an object from another world. "It might be for the best." she said quietly, tucking the gun into her waistband and covering the weapon with her T-shirt. This surprised George, beyond measure. She would have expected Anne to pass the gun to Dick or Jo. Instead, she took charge of the gun herself. George had to admit that this behaviour impressed her. Anne seemed to become braver and more self-confident, which would definitely be a great help to her in this adventure.

"Let's get going then. I hope we find those berries quickly," said Dick and set off with Anne and Jo on their most dangerous journey ever.


	4. The Forest of Death

For quite a while, Jo, Dick and Anne walked through the densely overgrown jungle. The midday heat broke in and made the air unpleasantly humid and muggy. The three young people quickly worked up a sweat just by walking. So far, they had not found any signs of this aforementioned Khwām Tāy. No signs or other objects that would establish a border came into their sight. All the while, they walked in the direction shown to them by Lewis and the compass. Before Jo had given up on the compass and Cassi had snatched it up, she took a quick look at it, which gave her a rough idea of which direction they had to go.

"My goodness. I respect you and your people that you can stand living here like this every day," snorted Dick, who was the worst hit by the heat. Jo smirked and casually patted him on the shoulder. "All force of habit." she said, grinning. "I'll never get used to it," Dick returned, shaking his head. "Shouldn't there be signs or something somewhere? I don't see anything for miles around here except trees and wild brush," Anne said, steering the conversation in another direction. "Maybe we've just been fooled and this Khwām Tāy doesn't exist," Dick surmised. "Rather unlikely. Lewis and Cassi both talked about it. And Nick seemed to know about it too. So I think this mythical part of the jungle must definitely exist," Jo replied, leading the small group. "I hope it's not as dangerous as everyone thinks, though," Anne interjected. She still hoped it was all made up to scare the teens away. She didn't want to accuse Lewis of lying to them so that he could get the treasure himself. Besides, he wanted to save his brother and was not after it at all. However, she had often been wrong about people. Only with Lewis it was different. She felt it deep in her heart that this young Australian was definitely not a bad person.

While Anne was deep in thought about Lewis, Jo suddenly stopped abruptly. The youngest of the Famous Five didn't notice and crashed into Jo, completely absent-minded. "Oh dear, I'm sorry," she stammered, shaking her head. She slapped herself in thought for thinking of a boy she barely knew in their current situation. "What's wrong Jo?" asked Dick in confusion. "That's what's wrong.", Jo pressed out, pointing to something that seemed to be causing her great concern. As Dick followed her gaze, he immediately understood her worries. Fluttering in front of them was a large giant white bedsheet, fixed between two trees and serving as a makeshift shield. A gigantic drawing of a skull, which gave a frightening impression, served as a warning. Above it a handwriting written in English "DANGER!" and below it, something else in two scripts unknown to the youths coming from Europe. Dick nevertheless realized that the second of the scripts must be Chinese.

"That's...", stuttered Anne, who stared at the "sign" as if rooted to the spot, her face as white as a sheet. "H̄̂ām p̄h̀ān. It's one of those signs Lewis warned us about," Jo said, taking a deep breath. "Then I guess we've arrived at our destination," Dick added, looking around cautiously. The youngsters had to admit that the area of the jungle that was behind the sign did indeed give a very creepy impression. "Is it my imagination or is that pitch-black back there?" asked Dick, confused. "No, you're not," replied Jo, who also noticed that everything behind the sign was shrouded in a strange, frightening darkness. This just couldn't be natural? Was their mind playing an evil trick on them?

"We should go in there, look for the berries and then get right back out," said Dick, who had his eyes fixed on the Khwām Tāy. "We have no choice.", Jo confirmed him quietly and ventured a few steps forward. Dick and Anne followed her cautiously. Right in front of the creepy, makeshift sign, they stopped. "I wonder if I'll be beamed to another galaxy the moment I cross the line," Dick joked, which only cheered Jo up a little. Anne, on the other hand, was pale as snow and completely silent. She gave Dick a stunned look, as if to ask him how he could joke in this situation.

Jo was the first to venture into the "forest of death". The supposed "border crossing" was much less spectacular than Dick had expected. Because instead of Jo being beamed to another galaxy, as he said, or being shot on the spot, simply... nothing happened. Yet Jo noticed something that plunged her into confusion. The temperature had changed. Suddenly it was much cooler than before. Her strange discovery became even more apparent when Anne, who after a while had also dared to cross the imaginary boundary, complained about the sudden jump in air temperature. Jo, however, was only slightly put off by this. She had sworn to find the berries for Julian and would not let such a conceit stop her. Without a word, she walked further into the jungle. Dick and Anne followed her silently.

###

While Jo, Dick and Anne went further and further into what was supposed to be the most dangerous area in the world, George looked after Julian as best she could. She laid him carefully on his sleeping bag and silently provided him with enough water. Throughout, he fainted and woke up again after a while for a few minutes. George asked him each time how he was. Her worries about her cousin were colossal. So great that she was already worried about the worry herself.

Timmy lay quietly beside her and looked down at George and Julian in turn. He seemed to sense his mistress's worries and tried to reassure her by placing his head on her left leg, while George sat cross-legged next to Julian. Lost in thought, George stroked her dog's head. She fervently hoped that the others would succeed in their search for Julian's cure and that nothing bad would happen to them.

Coughing, Julian awoke once more from a half-hour of unconsciousness. "Everything will be all right, Julian. Jo and the others will find those berries," she spoke to him as she squeezed his hand supportively. "If I can even make it this long. I feel so weak." groaned her cousin, who seemed to be slowly giving up hope. "You will get through this. I have every faith in it." replied George, who, unlike him, simply refused to give up hope.

###

"Do you see the same thing I see?" asked Dick, staring wide-eyed at something breathtaking in front of him. "Yes. We do," Anne confirmed him. After wandering deeper and deeper into the supposedly chaotic and lawless Khwām Tāy, something they had never expected was revealed to them. Untouched nature stretched for miles in front of them. Gigantic trees, with huge trunks, beautiful plants and bushes that made you feel like you were in paradise. Was the Khwām Tāy just a lie after all? Were these signs just an attempt to keep tourists and superstitious inhabitants away from this area? It definitely did not radiate a dangerous atmosphere, which had a great effect on the three teenagers. They felt safe and automatically let their guard down.

Dick stopped in front of a gigantic tree with a huge crown, impressed. "What is that?" he asked. "T̂nmị̂ lîncī̀," Jo replied with a smile. "It is also called a lychee tree. The lychee fruits of the same name grow on it. In China, where this tree also grows, wine is made from these fruits. They taste incredibly sweet, but only when they are really ripe," she explained. "But these fruits aren't able to cure the bite of a black forest killer by pure chance, are they?" asked Anne. "No, they aren't. They just taste exquisite. That's all they've got," Jo replied, shaking her head. "Then we should keep looking. I don't think Julian will last much longer," Dick said, turning away from the big tree.

Deeper and deeper the three youths went into the "forest of death". They still could not explain why this area was so named. Not a soul was to be seen here and there was a pleasant, reassuring silence. But as they used to say: Appearances spoil things. And that is exactly what happened.

Gunshots made all three youths flinch violently. Jo immediately knelt down behind a fallen tree trunk and pulled Dick down with her. Anne did the same and looked at the others fearfully, but also confused. "What's wrong?" she asked, stammering slightly. "There are some people up ahead. They have guns, and they were just shooting at something," Jo replied, peering cautiously over the boot that provided good cover for the teens. Sure enough, about two hundred yards from them, were several heavily armed men. They looked alarmed and were aiming their weapons at something the youngsters couldn't make out.

"Xxk mā cāk thī̀ s̀xn k̄hxng khuṇ txn nī̂! Mị̀mī xarị ca ch̀wy khuṇ dị̂!" one of the men shouted, holding his machine gun up in the air in a presentable manner. He was most likely the leader of the troop. Dick and Anne then looked up at Jo in confusion. They wanted to know from her what the man had just ordered. "Whoever they were fighting should surrender and come out of hiding," she said quietly, not taking her eyes off the leader of the armed group.

After no one responded or reacted to the leader's order, the men began to search their nearby surroundings. They held their weapons at the ready throughout, ready to pump anyone they could get in their sights full of lead. One of the men came very close to Jo, Dick and Anne. By a hair's breadth they managed to prevent him from spotting them by lying flat behind the tree trunk and squeezing very close to it. All three breathed an audible sigh of relief as the stranger trotted off again.

###

Although her fear for her cousin's survival was immense, George nevertheless sat quite relaxed next to Julian, who was still permanently alternating between consciousness and unconsciousness. She had hope. She believed in Jo, Dick and Anne. No one has ever been able to defeat the Famous Five so easily and this incident will also end well for them. George told herself that over and over again, which allowed her to breathe a little easier.

Her gaze fell on her hand, which was in her cousin's. She knew that she and Julian had something special between them. Something stronger than their friendship or their kinship. No, it had to be something much more powerful than that. Only what exactly that something was, George did not know and was far from finally finding out.

Although she wasn't sure and would probably never admit it, she had often admitted or asked herself if she had minimal romantic feelings for Julian. In the past, when her "I'm a boy!" feeling was a lot more violently present than it is now, she couldn't admit to being in love with anyone. For her, as a child, it was a sign of weakness or giving up independence. When she thought about it today, she could only shake her head in response. Her way of thinking had changed. Although she never gave up the desire to be a boy, and probably never will, she had increasingly dialled down her "masculine extremism", as Dick sometimes called it, and more or less accepted that she couldn't just be a boy because her body was changing in ways she didn't want at all. The first signs of gender dysphoria, which worsened considerably from year to year. No one but herself knows about it.

Rustling interrupted George's train of thought and abruptly caught her attention. When this rustling and cracking of branches did not subside, she slowly but surely became a little uneasy. Out of reflex, she reached for her waistband, but was horrified to find that the pistol that was supposed to be resting there was not present. Delayed by the shock, she only remembered after quite a while that she had given the gun to Anne, who had gone to the forest of death. She turned chalky pale as she admitted to herself that she was

Rustling interrupted George's train of thought and abruptly caught her attention. When this rustling and cracking of branches did not subside, she slowly but surely became a little uneasy. Out of reflex, she reached for her waistband, but was horrified to find that the pistol that was supposed to be resting there was not present. Delayed by the shock, she only remembered after quite a while that she had given the gun to Anne, who had gone to the forest of death. She turned white as a sheet when she admitted to herself that she, Julian and Timmy were defenceless against the danger that lurked in the depths of the vegetation. She could not stand up to a predator or an armed person.

When Timmy, who was still with Julian and faithfully watching over him, suddenly jumped up and ran in the direction of the sounds, George's stomach clenched painfully. "Timmy! Get away!" she commanded, trying to remain as quiet as possible. The dog didn't hear, however, which almost made George lose her composure. Almost mortal fear for Julian, her dog and herself tugged at her whole body and paralysed her. With her eyes wide open, she stared alternately at her dog and at the bushes from which the stressful rustling sounded. Completely motionless, she leaned against the stone and could not bring herself to say or do anything.

Just as she could free herself from her stupor and take a big leap towards her dog, the rustling got a lot louder. Then within a split second, a figure stood next to Timmy and stroked his head. A gigantic stone fell from her heart when she realized who this person was.

It was Lewis.

###

After what felt like an eternity, the unknown heavily armed people had finally disappeared and Jo, Dick and Anne dared to leave their hiding place behind the fallen tree. "My goodness. I feel like we've been crouched behind this log for at least an hour. My back is shot," Dick complained, stretching in a way that seemed a little excessive to the others. "Oh come on, don't be like that. You're always saying you love to be lazy," Anne countered with an innocent smile. "Who said that? Me, lazy? Tzz, never.", Dick immediately denied, to prevent himself from being humiliated in front of Jo. The latter, however, found Dick's reaction far too amusing and simply could not think of him in a malicious way. For her, he was different from the others in his own way and that was exactly what impressed her so much.

"Well, who used to start nagging straight away that they were starving, even though they had eaten almost everyone else's food two hours before, eh?" asked Anne teasingly. "Not me. Definitely not me," Dick muttered, looking down at the ground. He scratched the back of his head sheepishly, clearly not conforming to the situation Anne had put him in. "Absolutely not you, Dick Kirrin. No way in hell.", Anne continued to tease and walked past him, grinning and shaking her head.

Dick was puzzled by Anne's sudden rebelliousness. He knew she was only joking and for heaven's sake did not want to attack him personally, but still, she behaved differently. Almost more mature and a lot more confident than he knew the usually reserved Anne to be. His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by Jo, who could not suppress an amused laugh. "I must say Dick, you are adorable sometimes," she giggled and hurriedly scurried past him following Anne. This confused him even more. Had Jo really just called him "cute" or was he going completely crazy now? Did the forest of death have a hallucinogenic side effect? Shaking his head, he tried to get his thoughts under control. He had certainly misunderstood Jo and standing here stupidly, alone and rooted to the spot in what was supposed to be the most dangerous area in the world probably wouldn't have been so smart. So, he turned around and hurried after the two girls with a hasty "Hey, wait for me!”

###

"You gave me such a scare, dude. If you do that again, I'll punch that gun you love so much so hard in your..."

"Wow, George, take it easy," Lewis laughed in amusement. "I'm really sorry to have startled you so, but I'm afraid I can't announce myself because I didn't know if you were still here, and it's pretty dangerous to be yelling wildly in the deep jungle," he apologized, raising his hands slightly. Again he had the carbine with him, which this time he did not carry in his hand but swung loosely behind his back.

George did not answer him. Instead, she looked him grimly in the eye, as if she were turning him to stone. "Don't you want to tell me where the rest of your clique is and why he's lying there like he's smoked all the weed that's being dealt here in one go?" asked Lewis with a grin, pointing over at Julian.

Immediately, George's demeanour changed, and she looked over at her cousin in hurt. Lewis noticed this and his mischievous grin also disappeared immediately. He knew that look George had. She was afraid and distressed about the boy who only looked bad at second glance.

"I don't think weed would help him one bit. He was bitten. By the black forest killer or whatever the critter is called. I'm beginning to lose hope that he'll survive," George explained, shaking her head aggressively several times in a vain attempt to fight back a few tears that were so urgently trying to escape her eyes.

"That stupid woman Cassi said that only some red, cherry-like berries could alleviate the poisoning, so that the body could defeat it on its own. She also said something about some kind of medicine, something with chaldo or something, which is supposed to help directly but is probably impossible to get," she stammered on, totally ignoring her previous concerns that Lewis might not be to be trusted.

"Chaloditrophrine?" asked Lewis with interest. George just nodded, but fixed her eyes on Julian's chest, which was moving up and down very slowly and at times unevenly. "Chalod, is one of the strongest drugs that is not only smuggled and sold around here, but also produced. The stuff wouldn't cure him, but it would destroy his body so hard that the killer's bite would only be a mosquito bite for him.

"That's why the others went to get those berries," George muttered, still looking down at Julian and not seeming fully present. "But they're only in the Tāy," Lewis said quietly. "I know." she countered unabashedly. "And it's life-threatening.", Lewis continued still in a completely calm and composed tone. Either this guy didn't care at all what could possibly happen to the teens or he really has a fierce talent for hiding fear, panic and worry.  
"You already told us this, but we are the Famous Five. No one can stand up to our combined stubbornness. Especially not mine," George said. "And yet you sit here and let the others risk their lives?" asked Lewis with a slight grin.

George had to admit, that hurt! She knew it was selfish to send the others off and stay behind to mourn Julian's deteriorating condition. Still silent, she looked weakly at Julian's face and felt an uncanny urge to touch it with her fingers. But Lewis' presence stopped her.

"He seems to be important to you," Lewis observed. George did not answer him literally, but in her mind she agreed with him. Yes, he was important to her. As important as she would ever admit. Lewis sighed and turned his gaze to the floor. He seemed to be thinking, but George didn't care at this point. The thought that she might lose Julian forever tugged at her heart. He had placed his hands one over the other on his stomach, which was rising and falling agonisingly slowly. Exhausted, George squeezed her eyes shut, let out a sad sigh and placed her right hand on the boy's.

Shadowy movements, which she only saw in the corner of her eye, made her look up again. Lewis held out an elongated pen-like object to her and without words asked her to take it from his hand. Slowly she raised her right hand and carefully took the unfamiliar thing from his grasp as if it were a highly explosive object. "This is some kind of medicinal awakener. More specifically, it's an auto-injector that you'll jam into his leg. It won't weaken the poison, but it will give him new strength to at least stay awake and, with luck, maybe even walk around a bit," the Australian explained to her.

For a while, George held the injector in her hand and examined it, lost in thought. "We can't give him too many of these, though. Otherwise he might have a heart attack or stroke. It's pretty strong stuff.", Lewis added quietly, causing George's gaze to immediately flick up to him. "As long as we have a controlled response, though, we should be okay. We just can't overdo it, he needs an antidote as soon as possible," he reassured them, to which he got a slight, weak nod from George in response.

As she decided to administer the stimulant to Julian, she suddenly stopped. "Do I..." she stammered, looking at Lewis a little sheepishly. Lewis apparently knew immediately what she was thinking of and started laughing softly. "An auto-injector is used with quite a bit of force. Knocks through the fabric of his trousers like that," he said, grinning broadly. George nodded in relief that she didn't have to put herself in a rather embarrassing situation. She berated herself for thinking that way. Julian was, if she had to pick one, her best friend. Sure, they often have disagreements, but for George, that's what their friendship is all about. Somehow, despite their views of certain situations, they can always find compromises satisfactory to both of them. She didn't want to destroy her friendship with Julian with some stupid feelings that she couldn't even really justify and Julian probably didn't reciprocate.

"Do you want to do it or shall I?", Lewis offered her. George replied in the negative. "I can handle it," she said quietly. Taking a deep breath, she prepared to administer the drug to Julian. There was one small advantage to the boy's fainting. Having such a thing rammed into his leg would have to hurt enormously. Once more she took a deep breath, removing the protective cap that protected the needle of the injector from contamination or the wearer from injury. Mentally counting to three, she clenched her right hand, in which she held the injector, and jabbed it hard into Julian's right leg.

When Lewis had given her the injector, George had shortly afterwards read through the quick application instructions printed on it in small letters. On the top of the pen was a rubber button which, when pressed, forced the drug into the recipient's body. She pressed this and held it down for a short moment. Then she removed the pen from Julian's leg again and watched the boy in front of her.

She remained silent, but inside she was screaming for Julian to wake up. "It works pretty fast, you can give that thing to me in the meantime," Lewis said and held out his hand to her. Briefly she looked up at the Australian and handed him the now useless injector. Her gaze quickly dropped back to her cousin, whose breathing was now much stronger.

Lewis straightened up and disappeared behind her, probably to dispose of the injector. Julian stirred a little, which visibly stirred George. "Julian?" she breathed weakly. At the sound of George's voice and hearing his name, he finally woke up and slowly opened his eyes. "George.", he groaned in an enormously hoarse voice. "How are you?" she asked softly. Julian grabbed his right leg convulsively. "Everything hurts," Julian grumbled, trying sluggishly to sit up. With George's help, he managed to do so and she hugged him tightly, a gesture that took Julian completely by surprise but did him good.

At the same time, Lewis had gone to a stone in the clearing to destroy the needle of the auto-injector so that no one would get hurt by it. After hitting the tip three times against the stone, it came loose and fell at his feet. He unabashedly threw the rest of the injector into the forest after burying the needle of the pen.

When he turned around, he could just see George and Julian hugging each other. Grinning, he shook his head as they broke away from each other and acted as if nothing had happened. He immediately understood that neither of them obviously wanted to show that they felt much more for each other than a simple strong friendship.

Lewis let a few more seconds pass, then he rejoined the other two. Julian was the first to notice him and looked at him in surprise. He probably hadn't expected to see the Australian again so soon, or at all. "How are you?" asked Lewis casually, kneeling down beside him. "I'm dizzy and my head feels like it's about to explode," Julian replied, a little woozy. "I'm afraid the poison isn't out, but thanks to the adrenaline you should feel a little better for a while. You still need to get an antidote as soon as possible though," Lewis explained. "Are Anne and the others still in the forest of death?", Julian asked George worriedly. She just nodded silently and looked depressed at the ground.

"I don't like this at all. They can't even fight back," Lewis spoke, straightening up again. "I gave Anne the pistol you left me," George told him. "Better than nothing but against several hundred men armed with machine guns it won't make much difference either," the Australian doubted. "Sooner or later they will come across rebels or gangsters who will stop at nothing. Not even murder," he added worriedly.

"What should we do now?" asked Julian, looking up at him. "We should go after them. They might already be in trouble or need help," Lewis replied. Julian nodded in agreement and turned his gaze to George, who was also looking at him with concern for the others. She nodded slightly and thus also agreed with the idea of the other two boys.

"We'll help you to your feet first. Expect to get really dizzy," Lewis warned him and grabbed his right arm. George immediately assisted, stood up as well and did the same with her cousin's left arm. "Ready?" the Australian asked and Julian nodded in confirmation. "All right, careful then." he said curtly to George. Joining forces, they carefully pulled Julian to his feet, who immediately tried to hold on to both of them. As Lewis had said, he was immediately plagued by enormous vertigo. "The adrenaline is only now getting into all the corners of your body. You're about to feel like nothing ever happened to you, but you have to stop yourself from that. Your body is severely weakened and won't be able to take much," Lewis warned. "I can tell," Julian retorted with a grin. And indeed the Australian was right. More and more he regained his strength, but deep inside he felt that this strength was only a kind of illusion.

After a few seconds, Lewis and George released their grip from Julian's arms and let him keep his balance on his power, which worked pretty well. " Looking good so far. Let's take it slow and focused then," Lewis said. "Let's go.", Julian whispered and took his first step which gave him another kick of energy.

Slowly and carefully, they made their way towards Khwām Tāy. Lewis went first and, with his favourite weapon in his hand, led the small group. Julian followed him at a little distance. George stayed by his side, feeling a strange desire to hold her cousin's arm throughout.


	5. Berries!

_ Italicized  _ sections of text are only marginal information to clarify what happens in passing, as the beginning of this chapter happens in parallel with the end of the last one.

###

_ Deep in the forest of death, even before Lewis had reached Julian and George.... _

"We really should have thought of that before. We have no idea where exactly we are and how we're going to get back once we find these stupid berries," grumbled Anne, who was feeling a little fatigued. The sultry heat was hitting her hard and making her sluggish. Dick was also sweating profusely and exhausted. The only one who didn't mind the heat was Jo, who unflinchingly led the group of three. "Don't worry Anne. I'm a local. I always find a way back. When I was a bit younger I often wandered off into the deep jungle without a compass or other navigational tools," smiled Jo, trying as best she could to put herself in the others' shoes and put them at ease. "So you used to be pretty naughty, huh?" asked Dick, unintentionally sounding a little too suggestive. Jo, on the other hand, didn't seem to mind, probably even liked it. "Not only in the past. I don't let anyone tell me anything nowadays either. Unless I have a lot of respect for the person. Like you, for example." she replied, grinning mischievously. "Are we that respectable?", Dick teased, returning her grin. "Yeah, if you ask me, you are.", Jo replied, winking at the second youngest of the Famous Five.

Anne was getting a bit fed up with the flirting. She was a fanatical fan of love stories, but this moment and the current situation they were in was not conducive to sweet-talking. They were in a war zone and after encountering that armed group they had narrowly avoided a few hours ago, they should be ready for anything at any time and keep their eyes open.

"As far as I know, we have two possibilities to increase our chances of finding the berries," said Jo. "And what are those?" Dick asked. "We look for canyons or bodies of water. Both are guaranteed to have these berries," Jo replied. "So you know these berries we're looking for?" asked Anne, looking up at Jo expectantly. "Not really I've never seen them but heard of them. Being the only natural means of rendering a Black Forest Killer bite harmless, they are naturally highly sought after and a lifesaver here where the beetle is most prevalent," Jo answered her question. "So we're also in danger of not finding any at all if we're unlucky," doubted Dick, who just wanted his brother back in good health. "That's not quite right. These berries are growing like crap. They practically form colonies where hundreds of bushes grow at once. It's almost impossible to eradicate this plant," Jo told them. "But they grow on steep cliffs or rivers with strong currents, which of course makes them much more difficult to access," she added, a little worried.

Her concern was justified. In her village, dozens of rumours were circulating that people who had been searching for the berries had tragically perished. Since, as Jo had already explained, these berries grow in extremely dangerous places, many had already fallen to their certain deaths in the past while gathering them, or had been caught by the strong current of a wild river and drowned. Anne hoped that if they found the bushes by a river, they would grow on their side of the bank so that they would not have to put themselves in great danger of an agonizing drowning.

For a while, the three young people continued to roam silently through the jungle and had to realize again and again how beautiful nature was in it. It was hard to believe that this area of untouched, breathtaking beauty was a place of lawlessness and violence. Jo, Anne and Dick were convinced that the peaceful glow of the jungle was only dim and that something was indeed really very wrong here.

_ In the meantime, Lewis had arrived at George and Julian in the clearing. _

Jo unexpectedly stopped abruptly and listened intently to the sounds of the jungle. "What's going on?" asked Anne, confused, but was interrupted by Jo with a simple gesture of holding her finger in front of her mouth. "Do you hear that?" she asked the others, pointing slightly to the right. "Water!", Dick suddenly gave out. Indeed, if everyone was quiet for a while, they could hear the lapping of a river in the distance. Anne was hugely pleased, but at the same time struck with fear. Did they really have to cross a wild river with deadly currents now? She hoped not, but at the same time felt deep in her subconscious a certain dedication to doing everything she could to save her brother.

"I hope we find something quickly," Anne murmured and followed the other two teenagers. Quickly the natural sound of water grew louder and after a short while they could dimly make out a wide river filled with crystal clear blue water. Only a few minutes later, Jo, Dick and Anne were finally standing at this said river, looking around in both directions. "Do you know what these berries are supposed to look like, or at least their bushes?" asked Dick who didn't know what exactly to look for. "Well the berries are supposed to be red and grow in groups of four on their bushes. The bushes themselves are not supposed to be really high and grow in a circular formation with other bushes. Together they then form these so-called colonies," Jo explained, who didn't see anything promising at first glance either.

"I'd say we just follow this river. It's better than marching blindly through the jungle," Dick suggested, to which Jo agreed. Anne had no other ideas, so she agreed too. Before they set off, however, Jo knelt down on the bank of the river and reached out her right hand to dip it in the water. As soon as she did so, she was surprised by an incredible force. She almost fell down if she hadn't quickly pulled her hand out of the water again. "Okay, so the myth that the water currents here are incredibly strong is definitely true," she said and tried to put her hand into the water again. Again, her hand was pulled along by an incredible force from the water. She had to bend over and rest her other hand on the ground to build up enough strength to keep her hand from being pulled into the water.

"If you are thirsty, this water is drinkable," Jo said to the other two, which immediately drew their full attention. "Are you certain? I really don't want to get poisoned." doubted Anne who didn't much like the idea of consuming water from some river just like that. "You won't, don't worry. We all get our drinking water from the rivers and ponds near our village," Jo reassured her. Dick didn't need to be told twice and knelt down right next to Jo. "I feel so dehydrated you wouldn't believe it," he laughed and began to quench his brutal thirst. Anne joined them after a short while. She, too, had a murderous thirst and simply could not resist it.

_ Meanwhile, Lewis, Julian, George and Timmy are also on their way to the forest of death. _

After they had taken a short break on the banks of the river and had drunk enough, the three young people went on in search of the much sought-after berries that were Julian's remedy.

"That's them!" exclaimed Jo enthusiastically when they had followed the innocently calm river for a while. "Where?" asked Anne and Dick at the same time. "Well, up ahead." replied Jo, pointing a little to the left where there were indeed several bushes with bright red berries growing on them. "Is it really them? Have we finally made it?" asked Dick hopefully. "Let's go and have a closer look at them," Jo suggested, to which Dick and Anne immediately agreed.

Hastily, they made their way to the long-awaited bushes and stopped in front of them with shining eyes. The bushes in front of them were adorned with bright red berries that actually looked like a strange exotic mix of strawberries and cherries. "Thank heaven! We made it!" exclaimed Dick euphorically, dashing inexorably towards the bushes. "Give me a break. We still have to get these to Julian. Whatever way we get back," said Anne, putting a damper on her brother's euphoria. However, Dick did not let this fact drag him down completely. The fact that they finally found the berries after several hours of searching was a reason to celebrate at least a little. "Let's grab a few and get back to the others quickly," Jo said. "Nothing easier than that," Dick smirked, simply tearing off an entire branch of a bush. "That should be enough, right?" he asked with a grin.

Before Jo and Anne could say anything in reply, they were all silenced by a frightening noise of growling. "What was that?" asked Anne, intimidated. Jo turned around in shock and stared stunned into the depths of the jungle. She already had an idea what that sound was, she just didn't dare say it. As it turned out, she didn't have to because the source of the sound, which was life-threatening, revealed itself shortly afterwards.

"Get lost, you beast. Get out of here, leave me alone!" someone suddenly shouted in an extremely panicked voice. Only fractions of a second later, the teens were presented with a frightening picture. A slightly smaller, lanky man dressed in similar clothes as Lewis was running as fast as he could through the jungle. At first Dick and Anne were completely confused. "What's the matter with him?" asked Dick, a little anxiously but still rather perplexed. "Panther!" blurted out Jo, whose body immediately tensed as soon as she caught sight of the predator. " That's that guys last run of his life," Dick gave out, standing there just as petrified as Jo. Anne slapped him lightly on the arm for this inappropriate "joke", however her brother was absolutely right. It wasn't long before the guy fell down and was caught by the huge feline predator.

Wildly, the animal began to tug, scratch and bite at the completely defenceless man. The pain-filled screams made the teens feel queasy in the stomach area. After a while, the panther's victim became quiet as a mouse. Anne was horrified at what had happened to the man. Was he killed by the animal or did he faint? Her thoughts of the man's possible brutal demise were abruptly interrupted by several gunshots. The panther, which was still tampering with its victim's supposed corpse, yelped loudly and leapt away from the man. It quickly tried to run away, but was hit by several bullets and toppled over a few steps later.

A few seconds later, the gunman who had taken out the panther showed himself. It was a much taller man, who was also quite a bit slimmer than the man who had been the panther's victim. Shaking his head, the slender man sighed and touched his right ear. "Laoghaire here, Tolkien got it bad. He's been torn to shreds by a panther, what do you want me to do with him?" he spoke. On his ear was very likely a radio, through which he was communicating with whoever. "Confirm, no signs of life." he spoke curtly after kneeling down briefly to the badly battered fellow, his presumed colleague, to check his pulse. "Roger that, taking care of it right away," he finished his radio conversation and slipped a black backpack off his back. He set it down on the ground and took out a white tarpaulin. He unfolded it and unabashedly laid it over his colleague... or at least what was left of it.

"I think the water from before is coming up again," stammered Dick, who could only now speak quietly again. "I've seen enough, let's get out of here," whined Anne, who had become completely dizzy after the experience. She was surprised that her body had not reacted differently. Normally, even harmless film scenes made her feel very nauseous, but what she had just seen was real. It was a miracle that she didn't throw up and instead stood there with a loudly complaining stomach. "Yeah, let's get out of here before that guy sees us," Jo murmured and started walking.

Dick and Anne looked over again at the man who had just finished "burying" his colleague. As he did so, he showed no emotion whatsoever, which really got to Anne. What a heartless person. Watching someone being brutally killed without the chance to fight back and not even showing a hint of emotion or dejection. On the contrary, the man did his job drearily and professionally, completely covering up his deceased colleague with just a few moves. When he was done, he grabbed his backpack, zipped it up and swung it back on his back.

Unfortunately, that was not all the teens had to go through. Shortly after they had started their return journey, Dick accidentally stepped on a piece of wood hidden under undergrowth, which cracked loudly due to the pressure. Startled, all three youths stopped abruptly and looked at each other in panic. The guy will definitely have heard that, that was clear. Now they had only two options. Hide or run away. Both were life-threatening and could very well go badly wrong. But what choice did they have?

Unfortunately, the kids took a little too long to decide and the man from before was already on their heels. "Stop!" he shouted loudly, causing the youths to flinch violently. "What is that in your hand?" he asked Dick with a commanding undertone. He came closer and closer to the children, keeping his machine gun, with which he had also shot the panther earlier, at the ready. "That guy wouldn't shoot children, would he?" flashed it through Anne's mind, who instinctively let her hand go to her waistband and grasped the handle of the pistol that rested there. She dreaded firing the thing, but prepared herself to do just that if necessary.

Dick showed the unfriendly man what he was holding, whereupon he began to grin nastily. "Kids messing with the local animals. Typical tourists," he laughed. "Like your colleague earlier who ran away from the panther?", Jo hissed, which immediately wiped the ugly grin off the stranger's face. Instead of saying anything, he pointed the machine gun in his hand towards Jo and fired a shot. Fortunately, it only hit the ground, but did not miss in terms of intimidation. Jo's face immediately turned white as a sheet and Dick had moved close to her side. Instinctively, she leaned slightly against him. No one had ever shot at her with a sharp weapon before, no matter whether the shot should have hit her or not.

Anne's fright had caused her to pull the pistol out of its hiding place and hide it behind her right leg so that the guy wouldn't see it. "Watch how you talk about my men, you hear?" the lean man threatened, fingering his earpiece with a piercing look at Jo. "Laoghaire here again. Get a squad going, I've got some problems here with some idiots who think they can get in my way," he said into it, completely ignoring the fact that these "idiots" were defenceless children, apart from Anne, who was indeed armed. "Sure we'll stand in your way so bad. Can't even scare a few kids away," Jo scoffed. She was only slightly frightened by the guy. The shock of the deliberately missed shot had already passed. However, Jo's comments didn't seem to please the guy and he did the same thing again. This time Jo and Dick didn't flinch as much as the last time. "Cut the crap and leave us alone. My brother needs help." demanded Dick, to which, of course, the lean one paid little heed. "Oh how cute, your brother needs help.", the guy sneered in an extremely provocative manner. "Your brother won't be the only one in urgent need of a doctor in a minute.", he began to threaten and now pointed the rifle directly at Jo and Dick.

That was the sign for Anne. The guy completely blanked her out. She no longer existed for him. His wild gibberish and threats gave her enough time to gather enough courage to raise the gun and point it at the man threatening her friends. Unfortunately, he saw what Anne was doing out of the corner of his eye and immediately turned his head towards her. With his eyes wide open, he stared at her and shouted loudly: "Fuck! She's got a gun!

It had been a pure knee-jerk reaction. Anne aimed the pistol at the right leg of the supposed gangster, who was in the process of pulling the gun off Dick and Jo and pointing it at her. Without even thinking for a second, Anne pulled the trigger of the gun and shot the guy in the right thigh. The slender man immediately froze and started screaming in pain. He knelt down and held his shot leg, from which blood was already flowing. "You stupid brat!" he murmured threateningly and tried to hold his rifle upright with one hand to spite Anne. But the latter reacted swiftly and gave him another shot right in the upper-right arm, very close to the shoulder in which he held the gun. "Ah, bloody hell. I've been shot, get medical backup to my GPS position now!" the guy blathered into his radio and dropped to the ground in pain.

"Quick, get out of here!" hissed Jo, urging the others to follow her. After a few seconds of confusion as to what exactly had just happened, Dick and Anne did so. "Stop! Stay here, you filthy brats!" the injured man roared, picking up his gun from the floor. He switched it to full automatic and held it in the rough direction in which the children had fled. He pressed the gun's trigger fully and emptied the entire magazine blindly into the woods, with no regard for who, what or how he might hit something. Countless bullets whizzed past the children or hit tree trunks or the arid ground near them. The deafening muzzle flash almost deafened them.

They hadn't got far from the guy when they hear him shouting. "These idiots have fled in an easterly direction from my current position. Get them, but leave them alive, especially that blonde snotty brat!" he ordered loudly. "Keep going. Keep running, don't look behind. They won't be that fast," Jo shouted to the others in the heat of the moment. "Ha! You might think so," a voice in front of her suddenly laughed. A man, almost as tall as the other, only a lot wider, stepped into her way. Jo crashed into him full on and was caught right by him. Anne's pistol was taken from her shortly afterwards, and she was also caught by the people, who they still had no idea who they were. "Jo, Anne!" panicked Dick, who had built up a little distance and was watching the debacle from a short distance. He watched in horror as Jo was seized and Anne disarmed and thus brutally seized by the strangers. "Run, Dick! Julian needs those damn berries!" ordered Jo who tried to fight back as bested she could with scratching, kicking and pinching. Dick wanted to deny it at first, but the situation was hopeless. He had to return with Julian and George and of course Timmy as soon as possible. As he was about to turn around to save his brother, another of the strangers suddenly stood in front of him. "Well, where are you off to in such a hurry?" asked the broad-shouldered man looming menacingly over him. "Eh, to my brother." replied Dick, completely under the influence of adrenalin and in a shaky voice. "So, so, to your brother then. Sorry, but you're not going anywhere today, kid." the guy laughed and knocked Dick out with a huge punch.

"Dick!", Anne and Jo shouted at the same time. The latter was now getting really aggressive. "I'm going to get you, you sack of shit," Jo threatened and became increasingly grumpier. "Don't talk so much and stop bitching. Otherwise, you'll be sorry," ordered the guy who had pulled Jo firmly into a headlock. "You'll be sorry for this fucking shit. Beating up defenceless children, how cowardly are you?", Jo raged on, who could not do much physically, but could also win wars excellently with her cheeky tongue. The only problem was that the men were not at all afraid of Jo's threats, but rather made fun of them.

After a short while, the man Anne had shot down came limping up to them. A woman was walking next to him with a red cross symbol on her jacket. A paramedic who had tended to the man. "Take them to the temporary camp. I'll inform Haynes that we could grab at least three of those pesky kids who are getting in his way," he ordered, grinning nastily at Anne and Jo. The two girls threw shocked looks at each other. They didn't know that all these guys, belonged to Haynes. They already knew they were in trouble, but this would complicate things a little more.

###

"Soon we'll be there, we're only a few hundred metres away from the "border"," Lewis announced when he had walked through the jungle with George and Julian after quite a while. Julian was doing pretty well, even if he often needed a short breather and was frequently plagued by a violent throbbing headache or sudden attacks of dizziness. The latter always made him reach for George's arm to keep from falling over. At first George was perplexed and almost annoyed by this behaviour, but she quickly understood that Julian couldn't help it and that the touching was purely a knee-jerk reaction. She herself would also reach for something in the immediate vicinity if she suddenly felt dizzy.

George struggled for a while with her subconscious, which would tell her that she liked Julian's touch. But she immediately denied it. She had no time for such childish banter. They were in the supposedly most dangerous place in the world and she had to stay on her guard. The ever brave, courageous and selfless George, could not be distracted by any one-sided, silly and completely unfounded feelings. She didn't even know what to make of these feelings that were completely foreign to her. She had to stay focused and that's exactly what she did. Even if it meant bringing the old George from earlier back to the fore a little and becoming a little cooler. Her general exaggerated concern for Julian, had never been her style anyway.

"Are you OK?" Julian asked quietly when he noticed that something was wrong with George. In their internal conflict, she had been staring at the floor in front of her throughout, which confused Julian slightly. "Yeah, everything's fine," she lied. "I'm just worried about your siblings," she added quietly, a half white lie to avoid drawing attention to herself. "They'll be fine, Jo knows her way around the jungle," he said, smiling weakly at her. Instinctively, George smiled back, but she felt a little strange that Julian was talking about Jo. She accused herself of being childish, of being jealous now, and reminded herself not to think about it any further or in any way along those lines.

"What's that?" George blurted as she looked up briefly to check on Lewis, who was walking ahead. The large white sheet, which Dick, Anne and Jo had also encountered, now fluttered in front of them. The gigantic, hastily drawn skull intimidated even George a little, who didn't really mind such things. "This is one of the many temporary warning signs meant to represent the imaginary border. Local residents are tired of losing their kids here, so they painted these skulls on them to scare the kids and make them turn around," Lewis explained. "And does it work?" asked Julian with a weak grin. Lewis grinned widely back. "Well the number of dead or abused kids has definitely gone down," the Australian replied which immediately knocked the grin off Julian's face. He had thought Lewis was only joking.

"Well, off to hell, then," Lewis said shortly before he started moving again. George went after him, but stopped when she noticed that Julian was not following. He was still a little shocked by what Lewis had just indirectly told him. Are children really being arbitrarily killed or abused here? If the latter happened to the girls because of his failure, he would never forgive himself. "Julian?" he heard George's voice speak. At that he looked up and straight into her eyes, from which he could not break away for what felt like an eternity. George, who reacted a little startled to Julian's gaze, also seemed unwilling or unable to break eye contact. The eldest of the Five Friends felt a tremendous urge to approach George, but he managed to restrain himself somewhat agonisingly.

Lewis noticed what was going on between George and Julian and decided to just wait and leave them alone. He turned his back to them and dug a tobacco pouch out of a pocket of his waistcoat. With a few quick swift moves, he rolled a cigarette and pulled a lighter from his pocket.

"Are you all right?" George urged anxiously and walked a little towards her cousin. That was exactly what made Julian that much more uneasy. He knew exactly what he was up against and was dreading it. Not really of the feelings, but more for the reaction of George or even the others if they were ever brought to light. "Yeah, it's all good. The wound is just starting to hurt a lot," he lied, rubbing the arm he had been bitten on by the black forest killer. As he lifted his arm a little, something startling caught George's eye. Hastily she hurried over to Julian and grabbed his arm. Confused and with his heart beating wildly in his chest, he looked at George and wondered what she was up to. Only by chance did he see the very same thing George was so worried about just now. A deep blood-red line had formed from the black ranger's wound, scrambling up his arm. George and Julian looked at each other piercingly for a moment, as if they had just seen a ghost.

"Lewis? Can you come here a minute?" called George without taking her eyes off Julian's. Lewis looked confused in their direction, but then came back to them without saying a word. However, he didn't walk straight towards them, but first a little to their left. Only after he had passed the bedsheet again did his gaze fall on the two of them, and he corrected his walking direction. If Julian hadn't been completely distracted by two other things at the moment, this behaviour of the Australian would have puzzled him greatly. George did not notice its behaviour at all. She stood there completely petrified, letting her eyes wander alternately to Julian's eyes and his arm. "What's up?" asked Lewis. He switched to stereotypical Australian slang, which would have been very funny to the two British teenagers in normal situations. But they were, more or less understandably, in no mood to laugh.

"What's that?" asked George, showing him Julian's arm and looking anxiously at Lewis. "May I?" he asked, clamping his cigarette between his lips. George gave him a little room, so he could look more closely at that scary red line. "That's from the beetle's venom. Once the red line reaches its heart, there will be no way out," he explained to the two, who then got wide-eyed. Lewis pointed to the collar of Julian's shirt. "Let me see how far the poison has worked its way, if that's okay," he said. "Yeah, no problem." groaned Julian. Lewis let go of Julian's arm and pulled the front collar of Julian's t-shirt slightly down and to the left. "Holy crap.", George gasped out in shock when she saw her cousin's left shoulder covered in red lines. "How much longer will he have?" asked George with a thick lump in her throat. She was reluctant to ask the question. The fear of hearing miserable news was too much for her, but she still needed to know. "Three hours. If we're really lucky six," Lewis replied. George and Julian looked at each other in horror. George raised her hand and, lost in thought, touched the spot where the red line from his arm extended, root-like, over his shoulder. Julian tensed abruptly and sheepishly turned his head away from George. The latter was too deep in thought about whatever it was she was thinking about. Lewis, on the other hand, who had put a little distance between them again, noticed Julian's behaviour and couldn't help grinning.

If he had to choose one thing he was perfect at, it was reading other people. Even before his father had passed away, he had been very interested in psychology and additionally in general non-verbal communication, i.e. gestures and facial expressions and their meanings. He took part in short seminars in both fields, which aroused his interest even more, so that the young Australian continued his education on his own. Exactly this knowledge, indicated to him that in front of him stood two people who meant much more to each other than two best friends. This was about true feelings, against which both were fighting fiercely. A fight they would never win and would only harm themselves. Nothing stood in their way. Only themselves, and Lewis found that rather saddening.


	7. Mocoso!

Jo, Dick and Anne were driven further and further through the dense jungle. They no longer knew whether they were still in the forest of death or not. Even Jo had lost track of the situation and was following two men in improvised handcuffs next to Dick. One of these men was Laoghaire, whose strong Irish accent was getting on Jo's nerves. She had nothing against the Irish, but her relationship with the guy was anything but friendly. She would have liked to beat the guy up so that he would cry and call for his mum, but as these people are, he was not alone. Cowardly! That is the word that kept running through the Thai girl's head. How cowardly these people are, to simply attack defenceless children, put them in "handcuffs" and then drag them along with them. In the process, they were constantly making fun of them. Especially Jo's action of calling one of the guys a "sap" became the joke of the day among the men. Dick had his hands full keeping the extremely agitated Jo in check and preventing her from doing anything stupid.

Anne, on the other hand, was close to tears. Since her "arrest", she had been following the others every step of the way in silence and with her head down. At the same time, she was feverishly thinking about what these guys would do to them. Would they be injured, shot or even killed? Would they be taken to Mr Haynes and held hostage or something like that? She hoped so much that the other two would somehow save them. The thought of "the others" immediately brought Julian's health back to her mind. "Julian... Damn it, Julian will die without the berries," she let out a little louder, which the men circling them also heard. Dick and Jo turned to Anne and looked at her sympathetically yet dejectedly, as if they had given up hope of saving Julian. The men, however, had something to say about this that completely stunned Anne. "Don't worry, you'll have plenty of time to say goodbye to your brother. A few of our men were quick enough to catch him, too," Laoghaire said, laughing nastily. "What?" all three youths let out in shock. "Yeah, what an achievement. Only that one curly headed chap managed to get away with his mutt. But what danger will he pose?"

###

About 30 minutes before...

"Don't let the waters of this river..., in plain English, fuck with ya. It looks calm, but there are extreme currents in these waters," Lewis warned as he approached a shallow, calm-looking, quietly lapping river with George, Julian and Timmy in his wake. The same river that Jo, Dick and Anne had followed, but in a different place. "I've heard that the berries your boyfr..., sorry cousin, grow in numbers along these rivers," the Australian explained, pretending that his slip of the tongue was completely unintentional. George was a bit bothered by this. She didn't want him to think of her that way. She was strong and independent, not a little girl who let childish feelings control her. George didn't let the frustration of Lewis's confusion show, but still clenched her hands into fists instinctively. How dare that rich prig call Julian her "boyfriend". Sure, he was one of her best friends, but the way Lewis had said it, she felt like he was calling Julian her boyfriend.

"Hello, London this is Canberra, are you still afloat? Dude, have you been smoking something?" asked Lewis, who she seemed to have completely ignored. "Huh? Sorry, I was just thinking about the others," George lied, "They're fine. We'll check on them soon, once Julian gets those berries," Lewis replied. How could he be so sure they were really fine? He was the one who wanted to stop them from going into the forest of death. Now he has dragged them into it and is literally ignoring George's concern for Dick, Jo and Anne. For George, this Australian was becoming more and more mysterious and also a little suspicious. Did he really want to help them or was he just a stooge of Haynes, posing as a friend of theirs?

When George turned around, she saw Julian sitting down on the ground, exhausted and leaning against a stone. Timmy joined him and lay down next to him on the ground. The sight of her severely weakened cousin made her come down a little again. "Lewis, what exactly is going on here? You said this section of the jungle was a place of absolute lawlessness, but so far, all I see is untouched, undisturbed nature. I don't really know what to think at the moment," Julian spoke weakly, giving George hope that she wasn't the only one questioning the Australian's theories about the forest of death. "To explain everything accurately, I'll have to elaborate properly. The best place for me to start, is with what happened earlier," Lewis replied calmly. "What's he talking about?" asked George quietly, to which Julian replied with a smile, "You didn't notice anything about that earlier. You were too focused on me." At this saying, Julian conceded a not-so-light blow to his uninjured left arm. "Ouch.", Julian whined in fake pain, holding his right hand where George had hit him. "Don't you dare make fun of me, okay?!" she hissed. Her reaction disappointed Julian a little. He just wanted to have a little fun to take his mind off his humble situation. He didn't just want to think about possibly dying soon.

"I don't know if you noticed, but where George noticed the red line on your arm and called out to me, I didn't run straight towards you did I?" asked Lewis, which confused George a lot more. Julian gently put a hand on her arm to calm the visibly confused girl a little. "Yes that's right, I was going to ask you about that anyway," he confirmed. "Yes, that's one of the aspects of this forest that researchers and scientists have been racking their brains about for months," Lewis replied and began to tell them everything he knew about this seemingly bewitched jungle.

In fact, research teams as well as local people whose nothing had happened during their expedition had encountered extremely strange things. This darkness that Jo, Anne and Dick had noticed just before they entered the Death Forest was one of them. However, it was much worse when one was inside the forest of death. If you looked "outside" within the area, you saw nothing but black, empty darkness that engulfed everything over about 200 metres away. However, none of the Famous Five or even Jo noticed this, as they had never looked behind after entering the Khwām Tāy.

The researchers concluded that the Khwām Tāy was surrounded by a "psychedelic sphere" never seen before. Further research, however, was interrupted by domestic unrest. The permanent violent protests against the monarchy in the main major sites of the country, where most researchers held their headquarters, simply became too much of a danger for them.

This "psychedelic sphere" had serious influences on all living beings, whether human or animal, who were in the Khwām Tāy. Especially as the strange difference in temperature, which Dick, Jo and Anne also noticed, was triggered by emotions and feelings. If someone was insecure, afraid or panicked, it suddenly became cold for that person. If one was happy, euphoric or simply in a good mood, the temperature compared to a lukewarm late spring day. Romantic feelings, lust, but also enormous anger and a desire for violence, caused the temperature to shoot up to considerable heights, the latter making the air pressure almost unbearable and therefore only intensifying anger and violence, as one felt one had to "fight through" this air pressure.

Roughly speaking, this amplification of emotions occurs with all kinds of feelings. No matter what one felt, in the Khwām Tāy it was twice as strong. Someone who was angry lost control of that anger. Someone who was afraid was in danger of falling into a panic attack, and someone who tried to suppress romantic feelings for another person who was also in the Khwām Tāy was guaranteed to lose that battle at some point.

The Thai government, of course, was informed by the explorers of their discoveries and had declared the Khwām Tāy as a zone where they no longer took responsibility. Thus, the area of lawlessness came into being. International gangs and other criminal groups took full advantage of this decision and built first makeshift camps, then large main and temporary camps in the vastness of the jungle. Some of these were so well camouflaged or kept secret that they have not been found to this day. However, it was quite rare to come across these gangs, as they usually made their way cautiously through the jungle, or used old underground tunnels as routes. In exceptional cases, these tunnels were even developed by the gangsters for short passages. Fights between these gangs were usually lightning-fast and very deadly. The danger of being caught in the crossfire as a bystander was one of the greatest dangers for civilians and tourists in the Khwām Tāy.

"You know quite a lot about this place," Julian noted. "I also did my research before I travelled here. I don't go anywhere unprepared. That can put me, or more importantly others, in danger and being such a sensitive bastard, I can't afford to do that," Lewis countered, laughing softly. "So, now I'll get you the berries to get you back on your feet," he added, turning away from the other two. "What?" let out George in surprise and confusion. "What the hell is wrong with you?" asked Lewis, who had then turned around again after all. "I'm really starting to get the feeling you're a bit stoned or something," he laughed. Julian grinned slightly to himself as well. "I told you earlier that there's a bush of these berries up ahead. But you were kind of out of the loop there," Lewis said to George, who was getting increasingly irritated by Lewis' jabs. Frustrated, she straightened up and went over to Lewis to check on those berries herself. "You stay with him, I'll get them," the Australian stopped her, which immediately went against her grain. "If you think I can't climb down there because I'm a girl, you're seriously mistaken," she hissed, looking at him grimly. "Dude, it's got nothing to do with that. If you want to be a guy, you're a guy to me, I'm more progressive about that than your cousin over there. I just think it's better that someone stays with him who knows him well," Lewis immediately rowed back, which honestly surprised George a little. Did the Australian really just tell her that he saw her as a boy?

Completely perplexed, she trotted back to Julian without talking back and sank back down on the floor beside him. Never before had anyone voluntarily offered to see her as a boy. To her, that meant so much that she shut down her concern that Lewis might not be trusted. "Are you okay?" asked Julian, looking at her with a smirk. George nodded and asked him the same. "I just want to have these berries and get my strength back," he replied, grinning. George just couldn't help but return his grin. They were very close, which normally she would not have liked at all. But for whatever reason, she didn't care at all, at that moment. On the contrary, she even leaned slightly against him. Whether he noticed was also of no concern to her. She was exhausted. Exhausted from worrying about the others all the time and whether Lewis might not be their enemy after all. Now she just wanted to relax for a moment and listen to the quiet rippling of the river in front of them. Unintentionally, she nodded off, leaning close to Julian's shoulder.

George was jolted out of her sleepy state by a strange crackling and popping sound that sounded like footsteps. At first, she thought that Lewis had finally returned with the berries, but he was nowhere to be seen. "What was that?" asked Julian, who was also visibly confused by the noise.

Only after listening more closely did George realize that these noises were coming from a completely different direction, one in which Lewis had not gone at all. Instinctively, she stood up and looked around. Timmy did the same and followed her. Slowly she stepped to the ledge where Lewis had climbed down to reach the bushes. But when George arrived at the said ledge, there was no one there. No sign of the young Australian who had promised them to get the berries for Julian. George wanted to call for him, but before she could do so, something happened that completely took her breath away.

Strange, deafeningly loud noises reached her ears, which immediately set her heart racing. A frightening mix of distorted, distant screaming, wild chattering in a language completely unknown to her and strangely cheerful laughter from children's voices tugged at her hearing. It was all paired with a shrill whine that sounded anything but natural. "What the hell is going on now!" she thought to herself as she turned to Julian with her hands on her ears. However, there was only the stone... without Julian.

Two hands grabbed her violently from behind, whereupon she immediately moved forward and freed herself from their grip. With a startled cry, George turned around and faced a tall, broad-shouldered guy who was looking down at her with a nasty grin. Timmy immediately started growling and put himself between her and the strange guy, who clearly had no good intentions. "George!" a very familiar voice called out, causing her to turn around momentarily. "Julian!" she cried in shock as she saw her cousin being forcibly held down by another stranger and dragged away from her. George took a few steps backwards, but bumped into the chest of another guy. A third man also joined in and tried to surround her with the other two. The third was a lot slimmer than the other two and held a pistol in his right hand, which kept George a little at bay. Out of reflex, she grabbed Timmy's collar to stop her dog from putting herself in danger. "Run, George! It's no use struggling!" roared Julian with all the strength he had left. For a split second, George looked in the direction from which his voice came and looked Julian straight in the eye. They were simply pleading with her to run away and not do any heroic deeds. Running away was not at all their style, of course, but their situation was hopeless.

This became obvious to her when she saw the slender unknown man raise his right hand with the pistol and point it at her. Before he could shoot her, George ducked quickly and backed away. The next shot would hit her, she knew. With that thought, she gave up all her courage and willingness to fight and turned around. As fast as her legs carried her, she ran into the wildly overgrown jungle, Timmy always at her side. A few more shots were fired by the slender man, but they all whizzed past her. Then it was quiet again.  
George, however, did not stop. She ran, ran and ran, further and further into the jungle. Only after what felt like an eternity did she stop and rest her arms on her legs. She was definitely lost and didn't know where she was at all, but she didn't care. Panting heavily for breath, she wondered what on earth had just happened. First those strange, unnatural sounds, definitely playing from a loudspeaker or something. No one could make such disturbing sounds themselves. Then the sudden appearance of these men and how quickly they had caught Julian. Had these men been watching them all along? Or had they been betrayed? For seconds, she pondered what explanation there was for what had just played out before her eyes. Then something hit her like a fist in the face....

Lewis! Did he have something to do with it, or did he flee when he saw the men without warning them. The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. "Bloody hell!" she cursed, kicking with all her might at an innocent little tree near her. Swaying wildly back and forth, the plant seemed to complain about the disturbance of its peace. "Pl̀xy h̄ı̂ c̄hạn xyū̀ khn deīyw.", she heard a soft voice whisper from the direction of the tree, which confused the second oldest of the Famous Five mightily. Had the little tree just spoken to her? In Thai? Was she losing her mind completely now? Countless questions ran through her head at the same time and she could not answer any of them.

These questions in her aching head were silenced by the sound of footsteps and voices. Not wanting to get into any more life-threatening situations, George decided to just keep walking and hope the people she heard were either not hostile or did not notice her at all. Unfortunately, neither was the case and after a few steps she heard a man's voice shouting something.

“Vamos. ¡Atrapen a este tipo, no lo dejen escapar! Nos prometieron mucho dinero por atraparlo.”

"Spanish!?" gasped George in confusion, turning once more to the voices. She was horrified to discover up to eight masked gangsters rushing towards her with old weapons and wearing hip clothes. "Come on Timmy, let’s get away from here," she said to her dog and picked up her pace.

The gangsters seemed to notice this and actually started chasing them. As they did so, they kept shouting Spanish phrases like "¡Consigue a ese hijo de puta!", "¡No dejes que se escape!" or "¡Quieto ahí, mocoso!". She knew the men spoke Spanish, but she didn't understand a word of what they were shouting at her. She had a dull feeling at her back, though, that it was not good. To her advantage, George was a lot more nimble than these guys and managed to break visual contact in short order. As she continued to run away from the gangsters, she discovered something that gave her hope of getting rid of these men: a cave.

Briskly, Timmy and George rushed into the protective darkness of the cave and hid behind a ledge. With her heart pounding and a loudly panting Timmy beside her, she saw the men looking around in confusion. ¿A dónde fue?, one of them asked. "No sé, me temo que se nos ha escapado.", another replied. "¡Maldita sea, esa era nuestra oportunidad de embolsarnos dinero de verdad!" cursed another of the gang of thugs. Continuing to babble something unintelligible in Spanish, the men walked away, leaving George and Timmy unharmed.

Relieved, George took an audible deep breath and looked at her dog with a grin. "What idiots, Timmy. We really showed them, didn't we, big guy?" she laughed and stroked her dog's ears wildly. He barked in affirmation and licked his mistress happily across the face, who then laughed loudly.

Exhausted, George leaned against the cold stone wall of the cave and breathed heavily. A little dazed, she grabbed her forehead, which was suddenly frighteningly hot. "I think I really need to have a nap," she said to her dog and slumped limply. Timmy looked at her worriedly and nudged his snout against her, whimpering. But his mistress did not move a bit. Breathing heavily, she lay in front of him on the unusually cool stone floor and did not even react to his worried barking.

**Author's Note:**

> That's it for the first chapter. Not very long but hopefully the next chapter will be a little more exciting.
> 
> I would be very happy about reviews and feedback because that keeps me motivated.
> 
> Until then  
> DomKe


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